Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	catholic_n	communion_n	schismatic_n	2,982	5	12.0439	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62739	A sermon preached near Exeter on Cant. c. vi. v. 13 being an exhortation to all Protestant dissenters to joyn together against popery.	Tanner, Thomas, 1630-1682.	1677 (1677)	Wing T146; ESTC R1224	22,033	31

not without great sin and mischief for such a rent is a sin against the Head dividing the unity of the spirit against the body hindring of its growth wounding it with pain maiming it with impotency depriving it of perfection against particular members in that it doth with-draw that measure whereby another member should have been supplied and doth drain and divert the fulness of Christ against a mans own soul in that as a branch cut off from the Vine he must needs become dry cease to be fruitful and grow worse and worse till he return back to be a new engrafted In a word if one man cannot grow in Christ whilst another is at a stand or doth decay and wither and the very juice and chyle that doth administer unto growing be speaking of the same truth and the only way of digesting this truth to making encrease of the body be the edifying of it self in love We may easily perceive how this unity of the spirit doth constrain the Church if it be possible to maintain the unity of her Body for she cannot keep the unity of spirit without it but if she cannot possibly do so then earnestly to desire and endeavour the return of her scattered and divided Members Now to say the truth the dissenting Brethren have been alwaies sensible of the weight of this argument and to break the force or rebate the edge of it they pretend divers matters as it were for their excuse since it cannot be denied but we were first a Church or else they could not have derived from Us as they do and that we were the first in possession of the faith as viz. 1. That they agree with Us in the unity of faith believing the same Doctrine of salvation 2. In the unity of the spirit having the same desires about the saving of themselves and others 3. In the bond of charity as we are all members they say of the same Catholick Church and as Protestant Professors members of one another 4. Then that variety of opinion and union in the point of charity are not inconsistent 5. Nay that divers Order Discipline and Communion need not break the bond of charity unless by accident of mens corruptions which if they should be observed and humoured the Gospel it self could never have been preached for our Lord foretold that it would be an occasion of division 6. And for schism rightly understood that they look upon it as an heinous sin even as we do In which several pretences as they give us little cause of satisfaction so they give us a just and necessary occasion of returning somewhat more than is like to sort to their favour We must confess that when the Church is so divided that in the judgment of charity many godly persons do divide themselves from the body and in the judgment of the Church many men of eminent gifts and graces that were known to be such whilst they remained in her communion do desert her communion it cannot but prove an inexplicable inconvenience both to the Church and Them for if all believe and teach the same Doctrine of Salvation whence ariseth so much caution whom we hear such exceptions heats and scruples If we do not all believe the same Doctrine as it is to be doubted that we do not for as much as there seemeth not only to be a divers scope and drift in the pressing of many points of importance but that we fear our dissenting Brethren do not close with Us in one of the 12 articles of the Apostles Creed though some of them do not scruple at standing up when the whole is rehearsed in our Churches viz. I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints putting such a construction upon it as is far from the consent not onely of our Church but of all Ages as we conceive I say how can we then grow up together into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body is fitly joyn'd together unto one encrease If they could hold still the same charity inviolable without the same Order Discipline and Communion as others do pretend whence should arise such animosities and contentions It cannot be altogether from mens corruptions as at the first propagation of the Gospel but if it do arise partly from the corruptions frailties and partialities of such as break without necessity partly from the passions of such as are offended justly as we conceive howsoever unjust or extravagant they may be when they are provoked let them joyn the whole verse together It is necessary that offences come but wo be to them by whom they come But as we conceive the nature of the thing it self doth necessarily infer a breach of charity suppose men more good or perfect than either They or We can find or our Ancestors before us or the Posterity to come for it cannot be that there should be two Communions wherein it is supposed to be unlawful for one to joyn with another but that one Party to the other must needs be as the Jew or the Samaritan But if it be granted that these two parties cannot possibly have perfect charity with one another which if the nature of the thing did not hinder the just judgements of God by reason of the violation of his own Ordinance would do it then it must needs follow that the body cannot edifie it self in love and so the Church must needs retain an earnest desire to be restored to its best estate when it was in Union for though we may remain possibly Members of the Catholick Church still yet because we doubt of our consent in the Catholick Faith we cannot be united nor joyn in perfect charity and though we be all Protestants and so members of one another we can take no greater benefit or priviledg thereby than English men when they are in civil wars with one another To deal ingeniously this is the charity of the Church she looketh upon such good men whom in charity we way esteem so in some measure as do divide and separate from Us and such as they may draw with them to belong to the body still not only of the Catholick Church but of such particular Churches from which they do recede or within whose Precincts they may chance to fall Therefore she is not rash to excommunicate them but useth all her care and power and tenderness to reclaim and to reduce them having arms ever open to embrace them and to restore them to her peace and to indulge them in what she may to oblige them the faster to her self So far are we from looking upon them as other Churches or that their schisms can make them such or as free from our charge though they renounce Us or as fallen from the hope of the Gospel with all their followers into an inevitable state of damnation though we cannot reduce them as the Papists judge of Us that we own even these as a part of the

again to you we should never be satisfied one in the other we should be alwaies at debate and ready to break out into battels Better asunder as we are Fifthly But I take these last words as the Rejoynder of the true Church or daughters of Jerusalem replying again to the Shulamite If thou wilt but return unto us we shall be strong as it were the company of two armies against a common enemy or we shall make a beauteous or a splendid shew even as one Army drawn up into two Divisions when the Prince is to pass thorough them in triumphant manner as is used after Victory Return return therefore ô Shulamite return return that we may behold thy beauty enjoy thy love and joyn thy strength and thine array to ours and we shall be both happy The result of the words thus opened is only this That the true Church doth earnestly desire the return of her scattered and divided Members Doct. When God had stirred up his people to unite and joyn themselves from all parts against the Canaanites is there not mention made of Ephraim and Benjamin and Zebulun and Issachan and Nepthali that assembled But is it not also said for the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts or impressions of heart Judg. 5. c. for the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart that is much trouble and sorrow much enquiring what the reason should be that Reuben should so divide it self from the body of the Holy People And why should Gilead abide beyond Jordan and Dan remain in ships why should Asher continue in his Ports or Creeks When the ten Tribes did rend themselves from the obedience of the Sons of David and from the Worship of the true Temple built by Solomon according unto God's appointment do we not read of such complaints as these Jer. 2.3 5. Israel was holiness unto the Lord and what iniquity saith the Lord have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity Hos 14.1 c. and are become vain O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and return unto the Lord. And is not this the great Promise to support the spirits of the true Worshippers Jer. 23.3.4 I will gather my Flock I will set up shepheards over them Because ye are all become dross behold I will therefore gather you into the midst of Jerusalem And abundance of such other Prophecies which may be more close and pertinent is to be left to your observations when you read the holy Scriptures To come to the times of the New Testament when there were divisions in the Church of Corinth doth not Paul protest after this manner I beseech you brethren 1 Cor. 1.10 c. by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment To the Church of the Galatians thus Gal. 1.6 7. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but that there be some that trouble you O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you Gal. 3.1 Eph. 4.1 c. To the Ephesians thus I the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace for there is one Body and one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism c. To the Philippians thus Phil. 2.1 c. If there be any consolation in Christ fulfil my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Phil. 3.15 16. Let as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto them Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing It might but seem superfluous to run through the rest of the Epistles which are all full of the like expressions To proceed to the times succeeding the Apostles while yet the Church was under persecution About the year of our Lord 199. Because the Eastern Churches held resolutely to the observation of the Feast of Easter at the same time that the Jews kept the Passover which the Western Christians were offended at not because they doubted whether the Feast should be celebrated in memory of our Saviours resurrection which it seems had been alwaies used without any interruption from the times of the Apostles but because they thought it not convenient to have this day kept on any other than that when our Saviour rose whereas if they had observed the falling of the 14th Moon they should not only have gratified the Jews but might have happened to observe the wrong time And we do not doubt but the Western Christians were in the right But because the Eastern Churches were resolute in their own way one Victor Bishop at that time of Rome who was eminent on this side of the world in as much as Rome was the Imperial City and the number and quality of Christians there was predominant took upon him to sever from the union of Communion all the Eastern Churches which adhered to the other Custom Behold the first print of the foot of Antichrist here was a beginning of erecting a false Church excommunicating for an opinion or for a practice which was indifferent or at least not inconsistent with the peace of Christians excommunicating not only one person or a few particulars but whole Churches at a blow yea all Churches though they were on this side and of the same Communion if they would not joyn in the same wrong for which fact the said Victor was sharply then reproved by Ireneus Bishop of Lyons in France and a better man than he where there was also a numerous and a noble Church of Western Christians Euseb l. 5. cap. 26. It is the false Church therefore which is for scattering and dividing whereas the true Church is for gathering and uniting as much as may be And although the Church of Rome did afterwards resume some policy or prudence under other Bishops inclining to a shew of moderation yet the breach as only skinned over hath broken out again and lasteth unto this day and will last for ever till Rome return to be what it was before this breach of unity and charity upon her therefore we justly lay the impeachment of the first great Schism that ever was wherein she still persisteth thinking by her power to bear all other Churches down while she assumeth to her self the name of Catholick and imposeth on the rest the name of Schismaticks Again about the year of our Lord 254. when the Persecution under Decius waxed hot many