Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
nature_n humane_a law_n positive_a 2,470 5 10.9031 5 false
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
A42125 An answer to some queries concerning schism, toleration, &c. in a letter to a friend ... Gandy, Henry, 1649-1734. 1700 (1700) Wing G197; ESTC R8150 50,034 60

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Without this the Great ends and Proposals of so pure and holy a Religion cannot be accomplisht and therefore whatever Indulgences or Exemptions the Christian Magistrate may rightfully grant to Erroneous Judgments or Consciences acted with simplicity and a pious Disposition he cannot upon the Laws and Oeconomy of the Gospel or any Authority deriv'd to him from thence rightfully give a Positive establishment within the Districts of the same Government to two Opposite Communions or Altars of worship especially when one of them is founded in a Revolt from a Pure and Orthodox National Church This is the very reverse to a Protector and Defender of the True Religion So great a Sin did the Ancient Fathers account Schism before Apologet Vind. of Ch. Eng. p. 92. the happy Union of the Church and Empire when the Meetings of the Schismaticks were as much Tolerated by the State as the Meetings of the Catholicks and upon the same principle Donatism and Arianism were accounted as damnable sins every jot under the Reigns of those Emperours who granted Toleration to them as under the Reigns of those who made Laws against them Nay all the Laws which Constantius and Valens made in favour of Arianism and for the Establishment of it did not alter its damnable nature in the judgment of the Catholicks neither indeed is the obliquity of Schism alterable by Humane Laws and Constitutions as being a Transgression of a Divine Positive Law which God hath made for the preservation of the Body Politick of his Church to which Schism is as destructive in its Nature as Rebellion is to the State Q. Whether Persecution or Force will Excuse from Schism A. If the Church of England be a truely Catholick Church Id. p. 91. as the Divines of all Reformed Churches abroad will tell them the Dissenters She is then they must be guilty of Schism which is a Separation without a just Cause from the Church as a Church without any regard to the State For Schism or Separation without a just Cause is a pure Spiritual Crime and was reckon'd a Damnable sin before the Church Christian was united to the Empire as also in those unhappy Intervals of Persecution when the Church and Empire were disunited again For Example it was a damnable sin when St. Paul charg'd the Ephesians to keep the Unity of the Spirit c. It was a damnable Sin when he told the Corinthians That they were all Baptiz'd by one Spirit into one Body and that as the Natural Body was made one by the Union of many Members in it so also was the Body meaning the Body Politick of Christ It was a damnable Sin when St. Ignatius taught the Churches that nothing should be done without the leave of ●●e Bishop or in opposition to him and that that was only a valid Eucharist which was administred by him or by one licens'd and appointed by him And that Makers of Schism could not inherit the Kingdom of God It was a damnable sin when St. Cyprian call'd private Meetings in Opposition to the publick Conventicles of the Devil and said that private Altars were no Altars and that if a Schismatick should die for Christ he could be no Martyr nor have any right to the Crown of Martyrdom for which he alledges the words of the Apostles Tho I give my Body to be burnt and have not Charity it profits Nothing c. When great Exigencies force men to do any thing which otherwise Id. p. 51. they would not do they are said to do it unwillingly and to act against their Judgments and Inclinations and particularly when for fear of ruining and Exterminating Penalties which humanly speaking are intolerable men conform to any Religion which otherwise they would disown tho as to outward Conformity and Communion they are of it yet they are not for it in their hearts I Confess men ought to endure any thing rather than to conform to any Religion which they believe to be false or subscribe to any Confession which they believe not to be true but yet we see the Frailty of humane Nature is such that extream severity will make them comply against their Wills with a Religion they certainly know and firmly believe to be false No humane Law can make that Lawful which God has forbidden Vind. Ans to the Kgs. Papers p. 98. Id. p. 106. nor that Vnlawful which he has Commanded No Church in the World can lay an obligation upon a Man to be dishonest that is to profess one thing and do another which is Dissimulation and Hypocrisie And no Church can oblige a Man to believe what is False or do what is Vnlawful rather than do either he must forsake the Communion of that Church Touching the Worship of God since the Divine Establishment of Falkner's Christian Loyalty p. 40. the publick Christian Service is contain'd in the Gospel no Authority upon earth hath any right to prohibit this And those Christians who rightly Worship God in the true Catholick Communion according to the Apostolical and Primitive Church have a right to hold such Assemblies for the Christian Worship as appear useful for the Churches good tho this should be against the Interdict of the Civil Power Seeing Church Communion is a Duty laid upon us by God it plainly Blackall Serm. p. 17. follows That no Humane Authority can release us from our Obligation to it Sometimes Persecution it self is the most prolifick Soil for the Letter about Regulating the Press p. 14. Thorndi Rt. Ch. 1. 5. True Religion to shoot forth and flourish in Christianity had not only its first Foundation in it but we are assur'd received great Increases from it The primitive Christians frequented the service of God when they were in danger of the Laws because that which the Laws forbad was their Assemblies The main point of that Charter which makes the Church a Id. p. 6. Society is the Right of Assembling and holding such Assemblies without warrant against all Law of the world that forbids it The Christian indeed is obnoxious to the power of the Prince Reflections on the Hist pt of Church-Governt p. 50. Id. ibid. Thorndi Rt. of the Ch. p. 233. but Christianity is without the reach of his Sword Passive Obedience is our principle and if this renders the Legal Establishment of our Religion more obnoxious to the pleasure of the Civil Magistrate yet it better secures our Common Christianity The Head of every State is so absolute over the Persons that make the Church that the Independent power thereof in Church matters will enable it to do nothing against but suffer all things from the Sovereign And yet so absolute and depending on God alone is the Church in Church Matters that if a Sovereign professing Christianity should not only forbid the profession of that Faith or the exercise of those Ordinances which God has requir'd to be serv'd with but even the Exercise of that Ecclesiastical Power