Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	person_n	power_n	2,378	5	4.6585	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66900	Pulpit-conceptions, popular-deceptions, or, The grand debate resumed, in the point of prayer wherein it appears that those free prayers so earnestly contended for have no advantage above the prescribed liturgie in publick administrations : being an answer to the Presbyterian papers presented to the most reverend the ls. bishops at the Savoy upon that subject.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3347; ESTC R25192	47,855	72

evident Ephes 4. 1 2 3 c. I therefore the Prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit See 1 Cor. 1. 10. and Rom. 15. vers 5. 6. ut suprá in the bond of peace There is one body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all And Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them That they recommended Uniformity and Order to preserve that Unity is no less evident and upon this account their Order was a Prospect of so much pleasure to the Great Apostle in the Church of the Colossians Col. 2. 5. For though I be absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your Order and the Stedfastness of your Faith in Christ * Vide R. P. E. S. Jo. Davenant in Locum When men begin to break Order they grow loose in their Faith both to God and man This is the First Principle 2. The Apostles at their first preaching of the Gospel did not establish that Order which the State of the Church did afterwards require This is evident from those Decrees made in the first Council at Jerusalem Act. 15. and from that of the Apostle The rest will I set in order when I come The Second Principle 3. They exspected such a settlement to be made by those to whom they did intrust the Government of the Church This is evident from St Paul's Epistle to Titus Chap. 1. 5. where he tells him For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are left undone according to the Original From which words these two things do naturally follow 1. That at his first preaching of the Gospel St Paul had left some things undone which even in his own judgment were afterwards fit to be done which shews the vanity and falshood of that pretension That because the Apostles did not establish such and such things therefore forsooth they did not think them convenient to be established at all 2. From hence it follows That he exspected the accomplishment hereof from the care of Titus The Third Principle 4. They gave certain Canons or general Rules to direct the Governours of the Church in making such Establishments Such are those mentioned in St Paul's Epistles Let all things be done to the glory of God Let all things be done to edification Let all things be done decently and in order Hereupon * Institut lib. 3. cap. 19. §. 15. Calvin writing of Ecclesiastical Constitutions doth acknowledge some of them to be lawful ut Dei verbo consentaneae as being consonant to the Word of God And * In confes Fidei cap. 5. §. 17. Beza saith Necesse est ut in domo Dei omnia ordine fiant cujus Ordinis una quidem est universalis ratio ex verbo Dei petenda sed non una eadem forma quibusvis circumstantiis conveniens That is It is necessary that in the house of God all things be done in Order of which Order the one Universal Rule or Reason is to be taken out of the Word of God though there be not one and the same form agreeing in all circumstances And again Ejusmodi §. 16. constitutiones saith he quod attinet ad finem fundamentum nempe generale illud decorum quod nobis observandum praecipitur divinae sunt coelestes That is Such Constitutions as to the end and foundation of them to wit that General Decorum which we are commanded to observe are divine and celestial The Fourth Principle 5. They left it to the Judgment of the Governours of the Church to determine of the Particulars to be established according to These Rules That the Church hath power to institute External Rites and prescribe Forms and to make Canons and Constitutions to assist her Children and regulate their Practice in the Publick Worship and Service of God is the Confession of All Churches And this is consonant to the Word of God too For that Word or God by it which is all one gives a charge to the Church as hath been said to doe all things to Edification and the Glory of God and to this end it injoyns her to perform all her Holy Offices decently and in order and to worship God in the beauty of Holiness This the Word of God commands but does not determine the Particulars wherein that Order beauty decency do consist It follows therefore that This Word of God supposeth a Power in the Church to institute Rites and prescribe Forms and make Canons to this purpose And where shal we find this power lodged by the Apostle at that time when there were no Kings that were nursing Fathers to the Church For this cause I left thee Titus a single Person and at least a Bishop in Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting Tit. 1. 5. The Power and Authority is lodged in the Governours that is the Bishops of the Church The Fifth Principle Remember Mr Baxter's Doctrine before mentioned of the Authority of the Governours of the Church 6. That all Subjects and Members of the Church are obliged in Conscience to submit to and obey such Determinations For 't is most certain where some are impowered to command others are injoyned to obey else the Power given to Superiors would be to no effect Hereupon Beza acknowledgeth That although these Ecclesiastical Constitutions be Humane and mutable and do not propriè per se properly by themselves bind the Conscience yet si quidem probae justae sunt if they be just and honest we are so far forth obliged to observe them as they conduce to the Ut Ecclesiae aedificationi cedant offendiculum vitemus Beza ubi suprá edification of the Church and that we may avoid Scandal Thus Beza And the Presbyterian Divines do acknowledge as much in their Grand Debate pag. 92. The Subjects say they are bound to obey a * Was O. Cromwell's a true Authority you thought your selves bound to obey that true or false true Authority in such impositions as they are there speaking of where the matter belongs to the Cognizance and Office of the Ruler But suppose I should scruple my Obedience thinking my Superiour's impositions to be against the commands of God Why even in this case I am obliged to lay aside my own scruples and to bring such thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ who hath commanded me to obey those Hebr. 13. 17. that have the Rule over me My doubting whether the Command

where it is resolved That we may easily be deceived by our Enlargements because there are many winds and gales blowing from several quarters which may set the Soul in active going and doing as Popular applause high opinions of the Preacher taking-Expressions in Prayer flourishing Novelties and notions in a Sermon Satanical infusions common and ordinary Inspirations of the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to Reprobates Hebr. 6. 4 5 6. All which or any of which may so draw and delight the heart that as Orpheus 's Pipe they may make the heart dance in a duty and yet for all this it may be possible yea probable the heart may dance after the Devil's pipe And you must give other men leave to have their own experience and observation as well as you And when we see in you more Humility Self-denial Resignation of will and self-conceit and more obedience to Superiours which are under a divine command and of indispensable necessity to Salvation we shall be the more inclinable to believe your pretensions that some proficiency in the way of solid Vertue and Devotion is to be made by the course you plead for But it is not the affirmations of all the men in the world speaking in their own behalf and in favour of their own conceits that can so far unman us as to make us interpret those practices to be the effects of the Holy Spirit which contradict the Principles of Christianity extinguishing both Charity and Obedience But admit the effects you boast of were really the gifts of God and truly tended to the advancement of his pure Love in you would this warrant you to contemn or omit the established Liturgie of the Church All the Masters of Devotion that I have met withall do resolve otherwise To this purpose consider what Augustin Baker Sanct. Soph. ubi suprà cap. 2. saith in his Treatise of Vocal Prayer As for that Vocal Prayer saith he either in Publick or Private which is by the lawes of the Church of obligation no manner of pretences of finding more profit by internal exercises ought to be esteemed a sufficient ground for any to neglect or disparage it For though some Souls of the best disposition might perhaps more advance themselves towards perfection by internal exercises alone yet since generally even in Religion Souls are so tepid and negligent that if they were left to their own voluntary devotions they would scarce ever exercise either Vocal or Mental Prayer therefore inasmuch as a manifest distinction cannot be made between the Particular dispositions of Persons it was requisite and necessary that all should be obliged to a Publick external performance of divine Service praising God with the tongues also which were for that end given us that so an Order and decorum might be observed in God's Church to the end it might imitate the imployment of Angels and glorified Saints in a solemn united joyning of hearts and tongues to glorify God This was necessary also for the edification and invitation of those who are not obliged to the Office who perhaps would never think of God were they not incouraged thereto by seeing good Souls spend the greatest part of their time in such solemn and allmost hourly praying to and praising God Thus he And this perhaps you may be induced to subscribe to if we can get you in a good mood as you now seem to be for you tell us in your next words that some Formes have their laudable use to cure the errour and vice that lyeth on the other extream It seems then there is a Mediocrity and now you are resolved to hit it In good time for hitherto you have done more then insinuate That Formes are not a worship of God in Spirit and truth not effectuall and fervent but a dead Religion that ordinarily they hurt the heart that they are a dose of Opium that doth extinguish understanding-serious-godliness and the life of Religion What could you have said more to load them with contempt yet now you confess some Forms are not only lawful but laudable This looks like Bellarmine's Tutissimum that gave a defeat to his whole designe He writes five Books against Justification by Faith and then concludes the Controversie with a Confutation of all that he had written of it Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere So our Deformalists after a miserable stuctuation are glad to come to an Anchor to their Tutissimum and to take fanctuary from an impendent storm by confessing that some Forms are Lawful Lawfull but for what for nothing but to make a medicine to kill the itch that of pride curiosity and novelty the errour and vice that lyeth on the other extream 'T is well Forms are good for something in your opinion But let a wise and an humble man use them and they will serve very well to entertain and exercise a sound Faith and a sincere Love and a substantial Devotion But by this we see these men can speak truth if they list especially when their reputation and interest is concerned in it witness that Position of Mr Baxter's * In his Unsavoury Volume against Mr. Crandon or his Nosegay presented to Mr. Joseph Caryll page 83. ante finem which if his Party had the conscience to practise it would put an end to our Divisions and settle us in a happy state of Uniformitie for thus he saith Let me be bold to tell my opinion to my Brethren of the Ministry that though I deny them to have either credit or Authority against the known Word of God yet so great is their credit and Authority even as Teachers Guides of the Church in Causes agreeable to the Word And in Causes to the people doubtful and unknown and in Causes left by the Word to their determination the Word determining them but generally that I think the ignorance of this truth hath been the main cause of our sad Confusions and Schisms in England and that the Ministers have been guilty of it partly by an over-modest concealing An important truth falls from the pen of Mr. Baxter if he could say and hold their Authority and partly by an indiscreet opposition to the Papists errour of the Authority of the Church and I think that till we have better taught even our Godly people what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Churches of England shall never have peace or any good or establisht Order I say again we are broken for want of the knowledg of this truth and till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed This is Mr Baxter's sober Concession and he thought it so signal a verity when he wrote it that he set a hand in the margent to remark it and point it out to every Reader as most worthy his observation Let him preach the same Doctrine still and