Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	receive_v	tradition_n	2,719	5	9.4211	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53685	A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief enquiry into the nature and use of mental prayer and forms / by John Owen ...	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1682 (1682)	Wing O738; ESTC R11815	119,966	289

would ever have come into the minds of men had not a necessity of their Invention been introduced by the establishment of set Forms of Prayer as the only way and means of Divine Worship And whereever they are retained proportionably unto the principles of the Doctrine which men profess some such Ceremonies must be retained also I will not therefore deny but that here lyeth the foundation of all our present differences about the manner of Divine Worship Suppose a necessity of confining the Solemn Worship of the Church unto set Forms of Prayer and I will grant that sundry Rituals and Ceremonies may be well judged necessary to accompany their observance For without them they will quickly grow obsolete and unsatisfactory And if on the other hand free Prayer in the Church be allowed it is evident that nothing but the Grace and Gifts of the Holy Ghost with a due regard unto the Decency of natural circumstances is required in Divine service or can be admitted therein Neither yet is this consequent how inseparable soever it seems from the sole publick Use of set Forms of Prayer in sacred Administrations pleaded to prove them either in themselves or their use to be unlawful The Design of this consideration is only to shew that they have been so far abased that they are so subject to be abused and do so alway stand in need to be abused that they may attain the Ends aimed at by them as much weakens the Plea of the necessity of their imposition For this also is another evil that hath attended their invention The Guides of the Church after a while were not contented to make use of Humanely devised Forms of Prayer confining themselves unto their use alone in all publick Administrations but moreover they judged it meet to impose the same practice on all whom they esteemed to be under their Power And this at length they thought lawful yea necessary to do on penalties Ecclesiastical and Civil and in the issue Capital When this Injunction first found a prevalent entertainment is very uncertain For the first two or three Centuries there were no Systemes of composed Forms of Prayer used in any Church whatever as hath been proved Afterwards when they began to be generally received on such grounds and for such Reasons as I shall not here insist on but may do so in a Declaration of the Nature and Use of spiritual Gifts with their continuance in the Church and an enquiry into the causes of their Decay the Authority of some great Persons did recommend the Use of their Compositions unto other Churches even such as had a mind to make use of them as they saw good But as unto this device of their Imposition confining Churches not only unto the necessary use of them in general but unto a certain Composition and Collection of them we are beholding for all the advantage received thereby unto the Popes of Rome alone among the Churches of the second Edition For from their own Good Inclination and by their own Authority without the advice of Councils or pretence of Traditions the two Gorgons heads whereby in other cases they frighten poor Mortals and turn them into Stones by various Degrees they obtained a pretence of Right to impose them and did it accordingly For when the Use and Benefit of them had been for a while pleaded and thence a progress made unto their necessity it was needful that they should be imposed on all Churches and Christians by their Ecclesiastical Authority But when afterwards they had insinuated into them and lodged in their Bowels the two great Idols of Transubstantiation and the unbloudy Sacrifice not only Mulcts Personal and Pecuniary but Capital punishments were enacted and executed to enforce their observance This brought Fire and Faggot into Christian Religion making Havock of the true Church of Christ and shedding Blood of thousands For the Martyrdom of all that have suffered death in the World for their Testimony against the Idolatries of the Mass derives originally from this Spring alone of the necessary imposition of compleat Liturgical Forms of Prayer For this is the sole foundation of the Roman Breviary and Missal which have been the Abaddons of the Church of Christ in these parts of the World and are ready once more to be so again Take away this Foundation and they all fall to the ground And it is worth Consideration of what kind that Principle is which was naturally improved unto such pernitious effects which quickly was found to be a meet and effectual Engine in the Hand of Sathan to destroy and murder the Servants of Christ. Had the Churches of Christ been left unto their primitive Liberty under the enjoined Duties of Reading and Expounding the Scripture of Singing Psalms to the praise of God of the Administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and of diligent preaching the Word all of them with Prayer according unto the Abilities and spiritual Gifts of them who did preside in them as it is evident that they were for some Ages it is impossible for any man to imagine what evils would have ensued thereon that might be of any consideration in comparison of those enormous mischiefs which followed on the contrary practice And as unto all the Inconveniences which as it is pretended might ensue on this Liberty there is sufficient Evangelical Provision for their prevention or cure made in the Gospel constitution and Communion of all the true Churches of Christ. But this was not the whole of the Evil that attended this Imposition For by this means all spiritual Ministerial Gifts were caused to cease in the Church For as they are Talents given to trade withal or manifestations of the Spirit given to profit or edify the Church they will not reside in any subject they will not abide if they are by any received if they are not improved by continual Exercise We see every day what effects the contempt or neglect of them doth produce Wherefore this Exercise of them being restrained and excluded by this Imposition they were utterly lost in the Church so as that it was looked on as a rare thing for any one to be able to pray in the Administration of Divine Worship Yea the pretence of such an Ability was esteemed a Crime and the Exercise of it a Sin scarce to be pardoned Yet do I not find it in any of the ancient Canons reckoned among the faults for which a Bishop or a Presbyter were to be deposed But that hereon arose in those who were called to officiate in publick Assemblies as unto the Gifts which they had received for the Edification of the Church in Divine Administrations that neglect which hath given a fatal wound unto the Light and Holiness of it is openly evident For when the Generality of men of that Order had provision of Prayers made for them which they purchased at an easy rate or had them provided for them at the charge of the People they

unto the Duty whereunto he is obliged whether personally or by vertue of any Relation wherein he stands unto others To suppose that God requireth Duties of men which they cannot perform in an acceptable manner by vertue and in the use of those Aids which he hath prepared and promised unto that End is to reflect Dishonour on his Goodness and Wisdom in his Commands Wherefore no man is obliged to pray in any Circumstances by vertue of any Relation or Office but he is able so to do according unto what is required of him and what he is not able for he is not called unto 6. We are expresly commanded to pray but are no where commanded to make Prayers for our selves much less for others This is supperadded for a supposed conveniency unto the light of Nature and Scripture-Institution 7. There is Assistance promised unto Believers to enable them to pray according unto the Will of God there is no assistance promised to enable any to make Prayers for others The former part of this Assertion is explained and proved in the ensuing discourse and the latter cannot be disproved And if it should be granted that the Work of composing Prayers for others is a good Work falling under the general Aids of the Holy Spirit necessary unto every good Work whatever yet are not those Aids of the same kind and nature with his actual Assistances in and unto Prayer as he is the Spirit of Grace and Supplications For in the use of those Assistances by Grace and Gifts every man that useth them doth actually pray nor are they otherwise to be used But men do not pray in the making and composing Forms of Prayer though they may do so in the reading of them afterward 8. Whatever Forms of Prayer were given out unto the use of the Church by Divine Authority and Inspiration as the Lords Prayer and the Psalms or Prayers of David they are to have their Everlasting use therein according unto what they were designed unto And be their End and Use what it will they can give no more warranty for Humane compositions unto the same End and the Injunction of their use than for other Humane Writings to be added unto the Scripture These and the like Principles which are evident in their own light and truth will be of Use to direct us in the Argument in hand so far as our present design is concerned therein For it is the Vindication of our own Principles and Practice that is principally designed and not an opposition unto those of other men Wherefore as was before intimated neither these Principles nor the Divine Testimonies which we shall more largely insist upon are ingaged to condemn all Use of set Forms of Prayers as sinful in themselves or absolutely unlawful or such as so vitiate the Worship of God as to render it wholly unacceptable in them that chuse so to worship him For God will accept the Persons of those who sincerely seek him though through invincible ignorance they may mistake in sundry things as unto the way and manner of his Worship And how far as unto particular instances of miscarriage this Rule may extend He only knows and of men whatever they pretend not one And where any do worship God in Christ with an Evidence of holy Fear and Sincerity and walk in a Conversation answerable unto the Rule of the Gospel though they have manifold Corruptions in the way of their Worship I shall never judge severely either of their present Acceptance with God or of their future Eternal Condition This is a safe Rule with respect unto others our own is to attend with all Diligence unto what God hath revealed concerning his Worship and absolutely comply therewith without which we can neither please Him nor come to the Enjoyment of Him I do acknowledge also that the general prevalency of the Use of set Forms of Prayer of Humane Invention in Christian Assemblies for many ages more than any other Argument that is urged for their necessity requires a tenderness in judgment as unto the whole nature of them and the Acceptance of their Persons in the Duty of Prayer by whom they are used Yet no consideration of this usage seeing it is not warranted by the Scriptures nor is of Apostolical Example nor is countenanced by the practice of the primitive Churches ought to hinder us from discerning and judging of the Evils and Inconveniencies that have ensued thereon Nor from discovering how far they are unwarrantable as unto their Imposition And these evils may be here a little considered The Beginnings of the Introduction of the Use of set Forms of Prayer of Humane composition into the Worship of the Church are altogether uncertain But that the Reception of them was progressive by new Additions from time to time is known to all For neither Rome nor the present Roman Missal were built in a day In that and the Breviaries did the whole Worship of the Church issue at least in these parts of the World No man is so fond as to suppose that they were of one entire composition the Work of one Age of one man or any Assembly of men at the same time unless they be so brutishly devout as to suppose that the Mass-book was brought from Heaven unto the Pope by an Angel as the Alcoran was to Mahomet It is evident indeed that the common People at least of the Communion of the Papal Church do believe it to be as much of a Divine Original as the Scripture and that on the same grounds of the proposal of it unto them as the only means of Divine Worship by their Church Hence is it unto them an Idol But it is well enough known how from small Beginnings by various Accessions it increased unto its present Form and Station And this Progress in the Reception of devised Forms of Prayer in the Worship of the Church carried along with it sundry pernitious concomitants which we may briefly consider 1. In and by the Additions made unto the first received Forms the superstitious and corrupt Doctrines of the Apostasy in several Ages were insinuated into the worship of the Church That such superstitious and corrupt Doctrines were gradually introduced into the Church is acknowledged by all Protestants and is sufficiently known the supposition of it is the sole foundation of the Reformation And by this Artifice of new Additions to received Forms they were from time to time admitted into and stated in the Worship of the Church by which principally to this very day they preserve their station in the minds of men Were that foundation of them taken away they would quickly fall to the ground By this means did those Abominations of Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass both leaven and poyson the whole Worship of the publick Assemblies and imposed themselves on the credulity of the People The Disputes of Speculative men superstitious and subtle about these things had never infected the minds of the