Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	5,870	5	9.6775	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31418	A discourse concerning the unity of the Catholick Church maintained in the Church of England	Cave, William, 1637-1713.; Thorp, George, 1637 or 8-1719.	1684 (1684)	Wing C1594; ESTC R22818	40,192	64

thus by degrees be withdrawn from subjection to his Authority abroad that darling point never to be dispensed or parted with whatever else might have been yielded Our Reformers who composed our Liturgy carefully collected the remainders of true Primitive Devotion then in use and separated from them all those corrupt additions which ignorance superstition and crafty policy had mixed therewith Therefore it is so far from being an objection that any part of our Liturgy was translated from the Roman Offices that while nothing is retained contrary to wholsom Doctrine and sound Piety it is a convincing argument of her impartial Sincerity and desire to preserve Uniformity as much as possible with all Christians abroad as well as at home in her own Members securing all the Substantials of Worship according to the plain sense of Scripture and the pattern of the Primitive Church And as to Circumstantials and Ceremonies she is sensible when they are too numerous how apt they are to darken the inward and more essential luster of Religion and prove a Burden instead of a Relief to its Worship which she takes notice St. Augustin complain'd of in his time But have since so encreased in the Eastern as well as Western Churches that it must argue a great aw to make the Service look like any thing serious and Sacred However this number alone where the particulars are not otherwise obnoxious tempts some to spend all their zeal therein and diverts them from things more necessary or gives too much occasion to others to quarrel about them Yet withal being apprehensive how needful it would be to maintain Order and Decency She hath kept some though very few and those most plain and unexceptionable in their nature most significative of the end for which they were appointed and most ancient and universal in their Institution and practice hinted in the title of our Liturgy as it is changed from the former And to prevent all differences hereabout she hath expressed her sense of them so clearly and explicitely that one would think no peevish obstinacy had room to interpose a scruple however the event hath proved Thus abundantly hath the Church of England vindicated her Reformation from all pretence of Apostacy from the True Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Church and shewed in all instances how careful she hath been to preserve the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with all the Members thereof Nor hath she been wanting in any respect or reverence due thereunto No Church being more cautious and sparing in its determinations more Canonical in its Impositions more Regular in its Succession and more charitable in its Censures making all necessary provision for her own Children so within the bounds of Catholick Unity that had other Churches observed the like method or measures way had been made for an universal consent and every true Christian where ever he came would have found his own Church wherewith to communicate without hesitancy in all Religious Offices And as St. Augustin observed in his time he would have needed but to enquire for the Catholick Church and no Schismatick would have dared to divert him to their Conventicles But if after the confusions and disorders of so many Centuries amidst such a depraved state by corrupt manners diversities of opinion and perplext Interests so great a happiness be not to be hoped for now that private person or particular Church will clear themselves before God and all good men that do what is in their power towards it and pray to Him to amend what they cannot change and in the mean time make the best use of what means they enjoy Upon which Premises an easie Solution is given to the old cavilling question Where was your Church before the Reformation or that time We answer Just where it is Thereby no new Church was set up no new Articles of Faith brought in no new Sacraments no new order of Priesthood to minister in holy things all which would have indeed required new Miracles and a new immediate Authority from Heaven so attested only the old were purged from impurities in Doctrine Worship and Practice which in passing through so many degenerate Ages they had contracted and that an ordinary Power might suffice to do If we were in the Catholick Church before we are so still and hope to better purpose We are not therefore out of it because their rash Censures have excluded us and then they unreasonably take advantage to argue against us from their own act We never formally shut them out what ever they have done to us What degrees of corruption in Faith or Manners may be consistent with the bare being of a Church or the possibility of salvation therein is needless and dangerous for us nicely to enquire it may be impossible for us to know I am sure it is most safe for us to reform what we know to be amiss and to leave those who do not to stand or fall by their own Master It is a very ill requital of our Charity if it be turned into a weapon of offence to wound or slay us by that by which we shewed our desire of their Cure But they and we must stand another trial and await a final infallible Sentence which ours here cannot change The best security that we know to meet it with comfort will be to use the most strict impartiality with our selves and the greatest Charity to others Yet our Adversaries glory in nothing more than in the name of the Catholick Church and boast in no Title so much as that of Catholicks which hath had deservedly so great veneration in all Antiquity But their claim here truly examined will prove as fallacious and arrogant as in any other instance For the term Catholick if we respect the notation of the word or the most constant use of it is the same as Vniversal and so joyned to the Church signifies the general Body of all Christians dispersed thoughout the World opposed to any distinct Party or separate Communion Thus we find it constantly applied by St. Augustin in all his Tracts against the Donatists and so opposed to them who went about to shut it up within their own Party and streitned Communion therein too closely imitated by our Adversaries who in spite of name or thing make the same inclosures about the Catholick as about the Roman Church and are as free in their severest censures of all others and as haughty in what they assume to themselves alone as they were though not proceeding upon the same grounds But what that holy Father every where presseth upon them reacheth as nearly our Antagonists the indispensable necessity of Charity that great bond of Unity in the Church and principal evidence of the Divine Spirit which animates the whole without which the highest gifts and most Sacred Ministrations are rendred ineffectual This is one of the prime Characteristick notes of the true Catholick Church and every living Member

Communion of our Church to share in those happy Advantages and Blessings which all who rightly improve it may promise themselves therein She desires by all means possible to convince their Consciences and incline their Affections to a willing compliance with their indispensable Duty and highest Priviledge rather than over aw their persons by severe Censures or the following condign punishments Nay if necessity force upon any the execution of the last when they will not hearken to the former she pleads the same Charity for the Principle of both not only to prevent others from being seduced by the same Errors But also thus to deter them from more dismal Ruine here and hereafter which hangs over them persisting still in the same obstinacy Of all she hath the tenderest compassion though making a difference but without partiality Some must be saved with Fear and almost violently pulled out of the Fire Men may make a noise with the odious name of Persecution yet our Adversaries of both extremes have little reason to object that of which they themselves stand so deeply chargeable when in their power But we relie not on that Plea which however it offend them would not clear us No setled Government Civil or Sacred was ever or is more gentle and compassionate in its inflictions than ours If when this Tenderness was requited with new and greater Insolence and more obstinate Contempt Authority begin to put on a more harsh and severe Countenance and make use of the rod of its power to correct the peevishness of some or restrain the extravagancies of others it is to be hoped they will in the end find it for their edification and not for their destruction and may see cause to bless God and thank their Governours for those benign Penalties which almost forceably opened their eyes to discern that evidence which pertinacious obstinacy had shut them against in all other Persuasives as St. Augustin declares several of the Donatists had professed to him and therefore saw great reason to recal and recant the many clamours they had raised on this occasion I hope we are not without many sensible Instances of the good effect hereof among our selves though it be very different in some from what it is in others but the tendency of it is certainly to what is good in all Experience and farther consideration may have made all prudent and sober Friends to true Piety Virtue and good Order ashamed of the popular Plea of Liberty or that men ought to be left free from any restraint or Impositions in matters of Religion and Conscience which must needs confound all peace and overturn all Government in every Society and so destroy the being of the Church as such and expose private persons to all manner of strange delusions and extravagant enterprises without the least guard or defence beside the ill aspect it hath on the Civil Peace I may add It never was and I doubt never will be practised by any Party of men when they can do otherwise who flee to it only for Sanctuary when they can find shelter no where beside Would men but impartially look abroad or consult former times or but really consider what were like to be their state under any other setled Constitution by whatever favourable Character it may have been represented they might find little temptation to querulous uneasiness in their present condition and small encouragement to seek and improve every occasion to quarrel at those few and mild restraints laid on them especially if withal they would faithfully reflect upon the ill use which hath been made of more remissness Indeed Christianity which is the Gospel of Love and Peace and is almost wholly made up of Charity inclines us first and most to the mildest methods as most grateful most likely to win upon other mens good affections and to testifie our own But then this mildness may be turned into the greatest cruelty to the guilty as well as to the innocent yea to the whole Community Our great wisdom will be so to pursue the former as we may avoid the latter and I know not where it is done more cautiously than here If we were to examine the strange and stiff Aversations in many to the Communion of our Church we shall find them mostly owing to blind Prejudice and gross Ignorance of what is required of them more than to any other Principles They have been brought up in a very ill opinion of our Service meerly by odious names sly and invidious Characters given to it from persons whose sincerity and judgment they relie on and so are before resolved against any farther enquiry and industriously shun all opportunities of better information either by personal Conference or reading our Books They think themselves sufficiently satisfied and go on to hate and revile but they often know not what nor why If we could bring them to make their own trial who are always jealous of any attempts from us matter of fact would be their best confutation and their own Eyes and Ears prove their most effectual conviction so as to wonder at their former obstinacy which some of them have confessed upon this experience I believe were some fierce Dissenters ask'd they can scarce say that they ever seriously read or attentively heard the Liturgy and know very little what it is therein which offends them I am sure they will hardly tell us Sometimes meer novelty startles them and they are afraid only for not being used to it These and many such little Objections that we can scarce guess at would soon be removed by this sensible proof reach'd down to all capacities and a sober steady temper of mind with a firm and well-grounded belief in most of the material Points of Christian Doctrine variously inculcated in the several Offices of our Liturgy would grow up more and more in them for want of this we find in several Zealots very little knowledge of the first Principles of Christian Religion and indeed very little to be learnt from those manner of discourses and Phrases to which they have been hitherto used But more particularly may these Reflections be applied to invite the Romanists amongst us unto the free sincere and cordial Communion with the Church of England which once though only to outward appearance they generally observed and have almost nothing to object against it but the rash and Schismatical Interdict of a forein usurped Power That the terms of our Communion are most truly Catholick hath been the chief design of this small Tract to prove and thereby to prevent the common prejudice from the name of the Catholick and Apostolick Church in which whatever they assume to themselves we have as good a title to our share as any Church in the world And no sensible evidence have we of our Communion with that Catholick Church but by communicating with the more particular Church in which Divine Providence hath placed us where nothing is required of