Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A34136
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Common-prayer-book devotions, episcopal delusions, or, The Second death of the service-book wherein the unlawfulness (with advantage) of the imposition of liturgies ... is clearly and plainly demonstrated from the Scriptures ...
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C. W.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing C5572; ESTC R35602
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67,445
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80
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Note THIS Discourse was drawn up during the Regency and Authority of the Old Service-Book since which time the many Diseases cleaving to it have it seems occasioned the Death of it and this the raising up of another in its stead of a new Calculation So that I know not whether the Scrutinie here made into the former Book will in all Points touch with the latter I suppose the Herings in the one Barrel differ not much from those in the other Common-Prayer-Book DEVOTIONS Episcopal Delusions OR THE SECOND DEATH OF The Service-Book WHEREIN The unlawfulness with advantage of the Imposition of Liturgies or stinted Forms of Prayer or of the Worship of God and more especially of the English Service-Book is clearly and plainly demonstrated from the Scriptures and grounds in Reason with Answers to the Arguments and Pleas insisted on in Defence of the said Impositions But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was 2 Tim. 3.9 His Spirit was stirred within him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Acts 17.16 For this cause was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the Truth John 18.37 And so will I go in unto the King which is not according to the Law and if I perish I perish Hester 4.16 Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth Gal. 4.16 Adulterum est impium est sacrilegium est quicquid humano furore instituitur ut dispositio divina violetur Cypr. Lib. 1. Ep. 8. Veritati potest nemo prescribere non spacium temporum no patrocinia personarum Teitul de Veland Virg. Doctis in speciem sanctis hoc consuetum ut caeteris Christo obnixius resistant Mulculus in Mat. p. 423. Printed in the Year 1666. To the Conscientious Reader CHRISTIAN READER THIS ensuing Discourse needeth no Epistle to commend it nor humane Patron to protect it an Epistolary Porch can add no more to its worth than a well placed Beauty-Spot to a good Complection whose Brightness is set off by the contrary Blackness The Workman was a person as well furnished with Stuff Tools Skill for Temple-work as most this last learned Age hath produced the weighty Truth he so strenuously presseth in this ensuing Tract was not the exercise of his Skill and Parts but the genuine birth of his Heart and Conscience a Truth so dear to him that he chose rather to part with Liberty Livelyhood and dear Relations than to shake hands and bid farewel to so endeared a Companion a Truth for which he had been a Sufferer in former Persecutions and for adhering to which he ended his dayes in a kind of Exile in this present Storm a Truth that was so revived upon his Heart and so powerfully prest upon his Conscience when the Blossoms of the Grave were upon him and the welcome messengers of Death had summon'd him to his Rest that he could not Dye till he had Commended it nay Commanded it to all that fear the Lord. The subject matter being a Defence of Pure Primitive Worship needs no Patron but he that is our Lord and Law-giver who stands with his Sword drawn to beat off all Copemates in this his Prerogative and although FILII PERDITIONIS may tug hard to justle Jesus Christ out of his Throne and to sit Paramount in the Temple of God chopping and changing Divine Institutions for Humane Inventions yet the day is at hand when the Builder of the Gospel-Temple shall plead his right with fury poured out How light soever some Scepticks Latitudinarians and others homines omnium horarum may set by Instituted Worship yet in all Ages of the World the sincere Servants of God have chosen rather Banishment and Death than to embrace the Customs of the Heathens or the Institutes of Roman Babylon in their Divine Service as both the Scriptures and Ecclesiastical Writers fully demonstrate Come we to our late times even since the Witnesses in the Marian days Where were more Learned more Godly Men in the World than Cartwright Parker Reynolds Greenham Ames and who knoweth not that these and many more of the same heavenly stamp suffered extream Persecution Deprivations and Banishments rather than they would touch with the Graven Images the work of the Craftsmen that then were and now are the Snares and Nets upon Mispah and Tabor Holy Cotton Shepherd and many others eminent for Piety and ability chose rather to end their dayes in a howling Wilderness than to defile themselves with Idols Learned Cotton answering the greatest Prelate then living that Cultus non Institutus was Idolatry But because some who have been Professors have now their eyes opened with tasting the Hony of Preferment Gain and Security and therefore will not take the Persons before mentioned as competent Witnesses in the Case I might summon in a Jury of the ablest Conformists in former dayes to give in their Verdict for the Araignment Condemnation of Invented Worship In a word all out Protestant Writers who contend with the Papists do use the same Arguments against their numerous Holy-dayes their Oyl-Crisme their Holywater Mass c. as we do against Holy-dayes and other retained Services and Ceremonies But because I will not keep you too long from the Banquet this Book presents you with take only a most famous Prophet of their own the Learned Bishop of Winchester Dr. Andrews in his Exposition upon the Second Commandment his words are these This Commandment which concerns the manner of Worship contains a Precept set down by way of Prohibition in these words NON FACIES TIBI SCULPTILE The Sanction in these words EGO ENIM DEUS TUUS SUM ZELOTYPUS Shewing how they shall be corrected that will not be directed by this Law Concerning the Performance of this Worship two things are commanded first God will have MODUM A SE PRESCRIPTUM Our service must be done in that manner himself prescribes Non simulacrum non Imago damnatur sed non facies tibi thou shalt not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Invented and Will-Worship devised by Man is here forbidden Men would have Worship of their own whereas God hath told them whatsoever thing I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it Hoc tantum facere quod Deus precepit and he brings in a reason assigned by Chrisostom Qui honoratur is maxime eo honore delectatur quem ipse vult non quem nos volumus non est honor sed dedecus si vel contra vel preter mandatum fiat It is rather a disgrace than honour to God to Worship him either against or besides his own Rule Since therefore you have such a Cloud of Witnesses let us run with patience our present race follow them who through great Tribulation have adhered to Jesus Christ If you can stand before the wrath of a jealous God if you can drink the
should be of as happy a calculation as the piety and parts of men in their greatest perfection are able to advance But 3. And lastly To the reason or ground of the Plea mentioned I answer That in case a great number of men supposing them both pious and learned should conveen and take what time they please to compose a Prayer with an intent to impose it or with a desire that it should be imposed upon their Christian Brethren it is not so probable as is pleaded and pretended that the Prayer framed by them upon such terms should have any spiritual or real worth in it or prevailingness with God above the prayer conceived and uttered without premeditation I mean in reference unto this particular prayer more than unto others by a person in gifts and parts of learning inferiour to them only supposing him to be a good man and fearing God For they who are imployed about making Prayers to be imposed upon Christians are about Satans work making Iron yokes and snares for the Sons and Daughters of God and certain it is that God takes no pleasure to be assisting unto men no not unto his own in the way of such an occupation and where God with his blessing is absent no undertakeing especially no spiritual undertakeing is like greatly to prosper in the hands of men though never so well accomplished for their work Whereas he that conscientiously addresleth himself unto God by prayer and is careful to pray according to his Will doth the work of God and consequently may as it were of course expect the assisting presence of God with him in his way which many times acteth men above their line and sphere and at no time when it is vouchsafed suffereth them so to miscarry as to lose their acceptance with God And thus we see that all Worship formed prescribed and imposed by men is heterogeneal and spurious and which the Scriptures yet and all principles of sound reason disdain to give the right hand of fellowship unto What will our zealous and severe Promoters of the Common-Prayer-Book-Worship say to these things If God be against them in their Cause who or what can be with them to any purpose The colours wherewith they commonly paint the face of it to give it the best complexion it will take are very washy faint and fading So that what Austin spake in a case that would not so well bear it I may upon a try'd account say concerning the Cause that now hath been argued Scio contra hanc quam defendimus sententiam neminem nisi errando disputare posse I know that no man can dispute against the opinion we maintain but by erring from the Truth The common Pleas for the lawfulness of the use of stinted Forms of Prayer I pass over onely with these two Memorandums 1. That the most substantial proof of the meer lawfulness of them will not reach the justification of the use of them by any Person much less will it justifie the penal imposition of them the reason is because there is nothing done by any person in or about the Worship or Service of God but is either more then lawful as either expedient or necessary or else unlawful That which is expedient or fitting to be done in the case we speak of is to a degree at least or in a sense necessary and so more then simply or meerly lawful that which is not expedient or not fitting to be done is questionless if it be done unlawful Therefore they that undertake to prove the lawfulness of set Forms of Prayer and no more though they should make good their enterprize yet would they not hereby lay a sufficient Foundation for any person actually to use them The reason hereof may be touched before we conclude Yea it is as true of all deliberate and moral actions that the lawfulness of them simply and indefinitely considered doth not prove it to be absolutely or universally lawful for any man to do them but onely under and with appropriate and due circumstances Therefore to put in this by the way to justifie the lawfulness of the use of things indifferent in the Worship of God meerly upon this ground that they are indifferent in themselves and out of the VVorship of God and so lawful is sufficiently ridiculous and childish but to justifie this use of them against the grain of so many material and weighty circumstances as rise up against it and with greatest importunity disswade from it especially in this Nation is little less then bidding a defiance to all Christian Ingenuity and a disclaiming of all respects both to God and Man 2. That the lawfulness of stinted Liturgies or set Forms of Prayer though never so demonstratively proved would be no salve to heal the sore or rather the many sores of the English Service-Book Some account hereof was given towards the beginning The bent of the present discourse hath stood chiefly against the imposition of Forms for the Worship of God and partly against a submission to the use of them upon the account of such imposition Let us now taste the spirit of those Arguments or of some of the chief of them by which the Lords and Masters of these impositions are wont to endeavour to make that which is crooked streight They that of old pleaded for Idols had it seems their strong Reasons such as they thought strong to maintain the Cause of their Clients Produce your Cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong Reasons c. Isa 41.21 And men of imposing Principles appear upon all occasions to be as confident as they were who went before them in the way of their iniquity binding heavy burthens and grievous to be born and laying them on mens shoulders as our Saviour chargeth the Scribes and Pharisees to have done in his dayes Mat. 23.4 Some of these in the height of their confidence that whoever were ignorant they were men of knowledge and of profound and sharp understandings demanded of Christ in the name as it seems of all their fellows not with a little indignation Are we blind also John 9.40 being jealous that he had sorely disparaged them in binding them up in the same bandle with the ignorant world But as highly conceited as they were of their knowledge and wisdom the Lord Christ dealing plainly with them in reproving them calleth them fools and blind guides over and over Mat. 23.16 17 19. And if it be lawful to call a Spade a Spade the great Proctors of the Impositions we speak of reserving unto them all the honour due unto their learning and parts otherwise when they rise up in their might to plead for these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professing themselves to be wise and to carry all clear before them they become fools and leave their Cause quite behind them Rom. 1.22 yea in these Disputes they seem scarce men or to have put away childish things A late great Hyperaspistes of Liturgical devotions and withall