Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	just_a	schism_n	separation_n	2,155	5	11.1655	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50415	A sermon against schisme, or, The seperations of these times preacht in the church of Wattlington in Oxford-shire, with some interruption, September 11, 1652 : at a publick dispute held there between Jasper Mayne, D.D. and one ----- ...	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1652 (1652)	Wing M1475; ESTC R32061	18,720	25

vaine unnecessary if it spring more out of Humour Pride desi●e of change or Hatred of their Brethren then out of any Christian love to keepe themselves from sinnes 'T is in the Scripture-Language Schisme That is a sinne of Separation Or if you will heare me expresse my self in the language of a very learned Man who hath contrived a clue to lead us through this Labyrinth This breach of Communion This separation from a Church rightly constituted This choyce of a New Guide New Teacher New Instructer Lastly This setting up of a New Congregation or place of private Meetings is the same sinne in Religion which Sedition or Rebellion is in the Commonwealth or State For upon a right examination of the matter 't will be found That Schisme is a Religious or Ecclesiasticall Sedition as Sedition in the State is a civill Lay-schisme Which two sinnes though they appeare to the World in diverse shapes the one with a Sword the other with a Bible in his Hand yet they both agree in this that they both disturbe the publick peace The one of the State where men are tyed by Laws as Men The other of the Church where men should be tyed by Love as Christians To let you yet farther see what a grievous sinne this sinne of Schisme or Separation is If the time would give me leave I might here rayse the Schoolemen Antient Fathers and Generall Councells from the dead and make them preach to you from this Pulpit against the sinne of Separation I might tell you that in the purest Times of the Church a Schismatick and Hereticke were lookt upon as Twinnes The one as an Enemy to the Faith the other to Communion But because in our darke Times learning is so grown out of date that to quote an Ancient Father is thought a piece of Superstition And to cite a Generall Councell is to speake words to our New Gifted men unknowne I will say nothing of this sinne but what the Scripture sayes before me First then I shall desire you to heare what S. Paul sayes in this case in the last Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans at the 17. verse Turne to the place and marke it well I beseech you Now I beseech you brethren sayes he there Marke them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them That is in other words Separate your selves from them And then he gives you a Character and Description of those Separaters at the 18. verse of that Chapter And sayes For they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their owne Belly And by good words and faire speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple In which words Foure things are so exactly drawn to life as makes them a perfect Prophecye or rather picture of our Times The first is that there were some in S. Pauls dayes who caused Divisions in the Church Men who in a way of Schisme and Separation made themselves the Heads and Leaders of divided Congregations Next The Ground upon which they built their Separation 't was not upon any just true lawfull Scripture-Ground For the Text sayes 'T was contrary to the Doctrine which the Apostles taught and preacht But the true cause or Ground why they thus caused Separations was meerly self-Interest And that they might gaine by their Divisions Nay 't was such a poore base unworthy selfe-Interest that 't is there said they did it in compliance to their Belly The third thing which will deserve your observation is the cunning Art they used to draw the weake to be their Followers 'T is there sayd that by good Words and faire Speeches they deceived the Hearts of the simple especially the simple of the weaker sex And who these were S. Paul in other words but to the same purpose tells you in the 3. Chapter of his second Epistle to Timothy at the 5 6 7. verses of that Chapter Where speaking of such Coseners he sayes they had a Forme of Godlinesse an outward seeming Holynesse to deceive and cosen by And that under this Forme of Godlynesse they crept into Houses and there led Captive silly Women loaden with sinnes and drawne away with divers Lusts. Women so unable to distinguish Right from Wrong that they were alwayes learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And certainly my Brethren 't is no new thing under the sunne to see the weaker sexe misled by holy Formes and Shews 'T is no new thing I say under the Sunne for a man that makes long prayers to eat up a Widdows House Or for a cunning Angler to catch the sillyer sort with a hooke bayted with Religion 'T was so in our Saviours time and 't was so in S. Pauls And whether their demure lookes their precise carriage their long prayers their good words and fayre speeches be not the Hooke and snare by which weake people are caught now whether the feasting of their Bellyes or the making Gayne of Godlinesse Or whether the Itch and pride of being the Leaders of a Faction Or whether the vaine Ambition of being thought more holy or more gifted than the rest be not the true end of those who doe now cause Separations I will not rashly censure but I have some reason to suspect But this is not all The fourth and last thing which most deserves your observation is that Separation in that place is such a Scripture-sinne that S. Paul commands us to separate from those who doe thus cause Separations Heare the place I pray once more repeated to you I beseech you Brethren sayes he Marke them who cause Divisions among you and avoid them That is as I said before Separate your selves from them If they who upon no just cause doe Separate must be Separated from I hope you 'l all confesse that Separation is a sinne And what sinne thinke you is this sinne of Separation Why I know some of you will thinke it strange if I should say 't is a sinne of the Flesh And yet S. Paul sayes that 't is a sinne of the Flesh in the 3. Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians Marke I beseech you what he sayes in that place Are ye not carnall sayes he there For whereas there are among you Envyings and Strifes and Divisions Are ye not carnall and walke as men Sayes He at the 3. verse Againe when one saith I am Paul And when another saith I am of Apollos Are ye not carnall sayes he at the 4. v. of that Chapter If to divide and separate from the Followers of S. Paul and to make themselves the Followers and Disciples of Apollos or if by way of Separation to make themselves the markes of severall Churches to which Apostles were the Guides were a sinne of Carnality as S. Paul sayes it was what shall we say of some people of our Times who instead of severall Apostles to divide themselves by doe chuse to themselves Guides so meane so

by his Brethren and his Coate be not once more dyed red once more imbrued in Bloud This you will say is very sad and yet this is not all That which extremely adde to the Misery of our Rents and Separations is that the wisest cannot hope they will ere be peeced or reconciled For the persons who thus Separate are so far from beleeving themselves to be in an Errour that they strongly thinke all Others erre who seperate not too They thinke themselves bound in Conscience to doe as they doe Nay zealous Arguments are urged and Texts of Scripture quoted to prove that 't is a damning sinne not to goe on in Separation The Churches where their Neighbours met ere now contemned and Scorned Nay I have with mine owne Ears heard a Dining Room a Chamber a Meeting under Trees Nay I have heard a Hog-stye a B●rne called places more sanctified then they In a word one of the great Reasons which they urge why they thus forsake our Churches and make divided Congregations is because They say the people which assemble there are so wicked so prophane that they turne Gods House of prayer into a den of Theeves To keep this infection from spreading in my Parish and to keepe this piece of Leaven from souring the whole Lumpe And withall to satisfie one whom I looke upon as a well-meaning though a seduced and erring person who hath ingaged her selfe by promise that if I can take the mist from her Eyes and cleerly let her see her Errour she will returne back to the Church from which she hath for some yeares gone astray and being invited to doe this in a way of Christian challenge which hath raised a great expectation in the Countrey I have taken up the Gauntlet and here present my selfe before you and before I enter the Lists to let you all see the Justice of the Cause which I here stand to defend I have chosen this Text for my shield where He who wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews sayes Let us consider one another to provoke one another to love and to Good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selve● together as the manner of some is The Division IN which words the only poynt which I shall insist upon as the fittest and most seasonable to be preacht to this divided Congregation shall be the point of Schisme or in plaine English Separation as 't is exprest to us in these Words Let us not forsake the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is In the pursuit and handling of which words I will proceed by these two plaine and easie steps First I will prove to you by Arguments which have a sun-beame for their parent That the Rent or Separation which is now made in the Church is a very grievous sinne Indeed a sinne so grievous that I scarce know whether Christians can be guilty of a greater Next I will Examine and answer their Arguments and Texts of Scripture who doe perswade themselves and others that their separation is no sinne Nay that would be a grievous sinne not to separate as they doe In the meane time I beseech you to lend me a quiet and favourable Attention whilest I begin with the first of th●se parts and that shall be to prove to you that the separations of our Times are great and grievous sinnes Among the other Characters and Descriptions which have been made of us Men we have been called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is a Creature borne and made and created for Society Towards the preservation and maintenance wherof God at the Beginning ordered his Creation of us so that whereas other Creatures take their Originall and Birth from a Diversitie of parents He made us Men to spring from one undivided single payre One Adam and one Eve were the two joyn'd parents of Mankinde And the Reason of this was That there might not onely be among us one common Kinred and Alliance but that we might hold a firme and constant League and Friendship with each other too And hence 't is we see that without any other Teacher but their owne Naturall Instinct Men in all Ages have avoided seperation by gathering themselves into formed Bodyes of Cittyes Towns and Commonwealths Neighbourhood Society mutuall help and Conversation being one of the great Ends for which God made us Men And upon this Ground it hath been disputed whether a Hermit or Monastic man breake not the Law of Nature because he separates himselfe from the company of Men And 't is clearly stated by some great Casuists That if he seperate from others for no End but separation if he retire himselfe into a Cave or Wildernesse or Desart as some of the Ancient Hermits did not for Devotion but out of a hatred or distaste of the rest of Mankinde In that particular he cannot well be called a Man but some wilder Creature made to dwell in Caves Desarts Forrests Dens As then the Law of Nature doth require us to preserve society and Friendship so the Law of Christ hath tyed and woven this knot much faster We are all of Kinne by Nature but we are all Brethren as Christians Men allyed to one another by one common Hope one common Faith one common Saviour one common God and Lord and Father of us all And upon this Ground when one Christian shall divide or forsake the society of Another unlesse it be upon a just principle of Conscience and to avoid a sinne the Scripture calls it not barely Separation but Separation which is Schisme That is such a Separation as is a Gospel-sinne ● Which that you may the more clearly understand give me leave to aske you in truth what is Schisme Why the best Definition of it that was ever yet given is this That Schisme is nothing else but a separation of Christians from that part of the Visible Church of which they were once Members upon meere fancyed slight unnecessary Grounds In which Definition of Schisme three things doe offer themselves to your serious observation to make it formall Schisme or a signe of Separation First it must be a separation of Christians from some part of the Visible Church of which they were once Members That is according to the Definition a visible Church as it concerns this present purpose it must be a Deniall of Communion with that Congregation of Christians with whom they were once united under a rightly-constituted Pastor Next they who thus separate must betake themselves to some other Teacher whom in opposition to the former they chuse to be their Guide and so make themselves his Followers Thirdly they must erect a New Assembly or place of Congregation as a New Church distinct from that from which they doe divide Lastly This choyce of a New Guide and Separation from the Old this Erection of a New Church and Division from the former must be upon slight unnecessary Grounds For if the Cause or Ground of their Separation be needlesse