Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	ecclesiastical_a	power_n	1,653	5	4.9005	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49134	Vox cleri, or, The sense of the clergy concerning the making of alterations in the established liturgy with remarks on the discourse concerning the Ecclesiastical Commission and several letters for alterations : to which is added an historical account of the whole proceedings of the present convocation.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.	1690 (1690)	Wing L2986; ESTC R1029	58,819	80

Jane had the Majority of Voices yet great endeavours were used to prefer the Dean whose Party having argued much for it but saw themselves overcome did at last yeild to the Election of Dr. Jane the Votes for him being double to the others The first thing that was done in the Convocation after the chusing the Prolocutor was Decemb. 4th when the Commission from the King was read there being present twelve Bishops the Commission was as follows WIlliam and Mary by the Grace of GOD King and Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland Defenders of the Faith c. To all to whom these Presents shall come Greeting Whereas in and by one Act of Parliament made at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th Reciting That whereas the King 's Humble and Obedient Subjects the Clergy of this Realm of England had not only acknowledged according to the Truth that the Convocation of the same Clergy were always had been and ought to be Assembled only by the King 's Writ but also submitting themselves to the King's Majesty had promised in Verbo Sacerdotis that they would never from thenceforth presume to Attempt Alledge Claim or put in Ure or Enact Promulge or Execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincial or others or by whatsoever other Name they should be called in the Convocation unless the said King's most Royal Assent and License might to them be had to Make Promulge and Execute the same and that the said King did give his Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf It was therefore Enacted by the Authority of the said Parliament according to the said Submission and Petition of the said Clergy among other things That they nor any of them from thenceforth should Enact Promulge or Execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever Name they might be called in their Convocations in time coming which always should be Assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ unless the same Clergy might have the King 's most Royal Assent and License to Make Promulge and Execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodal upon Pain of every one of the said Clergy doing contrary to the said Act and being thereof Convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fines at the King 's Will. And further by the said Act it is Provided That no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances should be Made or put in Execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocations of the Clergy which should be contrariant or repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in the said Act to the contrary thereof notwithstanding And lastly It is also Provided by the said Act That such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial which then were already made and which then were not contrariant or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the Damage or Hurt of the King's Prerogative Royal should then still be Used and Executed as they were before the making of the said Act until such time as they should be Viewed Searched or otherwise Ordered and Determin'd by the Persons mentioned in the said Act or the most part of them according to the Tenor Form and Effect of the said Act as by the said Act among divers other things more fully and at large it doth and may appear And whereas the particular Forms of Divine Worship and Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein being Things of their own Nature Indifferent and Alterable and so acknowledged it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important Considerations according to the various Exigency of Times and Occasions such Changes and Alterations should be made therein as to those that are in Place and Authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient And whereas the Book of Canons is fit to be Reviewed and made more suitable to the State of the Church And whereas there are divers Defects and Abuses in the Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdictions and particularly there is not sufficient Provision made for the removing of Scandalous Ministers and for the Reformation of Manners either in Ministers or People And whereas it is most fit that there should be a strict Method prescribed for the Examination of such Persons as desire to be admitted into Holy Orders both as to their Learning and Manners Know ye That We for divers urgent and weighty Causes and Considerations Us thereunto moving of Our especial Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion have by Vertue of Our Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical Given and Granted and by these Presents do give and grant full free and lawful Liberty License Power and Authority into the Right Reverend Father in GOD Henry Lord Bishop of London President of this Present Convocation for the Province of Canterbury upon the Suspension of the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury during this present Parliament now Assembled and in his Absence to such other Bishops as shall be appointed President thereof and to the rest of the Bishops of the same Province and to all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-Deacons Chapters and Colledges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province That they the said Lord Bishop of London or other President of the said Convocation and the rest of the Bishops and other the said Clergy of this present Convocation within the said Province of Canterbury or the greatest number of them whereof the President of the said Convocation to be always one shall and may from time to time during this present Parliament Confer Treat Debate Consider Consult and Agree of and upon such Points Matters Causes and Things as We from time to time shall Propose or cause to be proposed by the said Lord Bishop of London or other President of the said Convocation comercing Alterations and Amendments of the Liturgy and Canons and Orders Ordinances and Constitutions for the Reformation of Ecclesiastical Courts for the Removing of Scandalous Ministers for the Reformation of Manners either in Ministers or People and for the Examination of such Persons as desire to be admitted into Holy Orders and all such other Points Causes and Matters as We shall think Necessary and Expedient for advancing the Honour and Service of Almighty GOD the Good and Quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof And we do also by these Presents Give and Grant unto the said Lord Bishop of London or other President of the said Covocation and to the rest of the Bishops of the said Province of Canterbury and unto all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-Deacons Chapters and Colledges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province full free and lawful Liberty License Power and Authority That they the said Lord Bishop of London or other President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same

before the Communion That our sinful Bodies may be made clean by his Body and our Souls washed through his most precious Blood i.e. that both our Souls and Bodies may receive all the benefits of his Death and Passion In the Office of Baptism By the Baptism of thy well beloved Son in the River Jordan didst sanstifie Water i. e. didst appoint and consecrate the Element of Water to be the outward sign of the Grace conferred in that Sacrament by the Blood and Merits of Christ In the Office of Matrimony With my Body I thee Worship Which signifies a civil Respect and Honour and is more significant than what they would exchange it for viz. I give thee Power over my Body In that of Burial Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take to himself c. By which no more is meant than what as some understand the Scripture says The Spirit returns to God that gave it or if it supposeth Discipline so it expresseth Charity where Discipline hath not excluded them from the Communion of the Church that we hope they rest with God So in the Collect for Easter-Sunday where the Preface and the Petition want a better Connexion The Preface and Connexion are thus That as God by Christ hath opened to us the Gate of everlasting Life so he would prepare us for that life putting into our Hearts good Desires by his special Grace preventing us and by his continual help we may bring the same to good effect So the first Sunday after Easter c. the Preface is Almighty God who hast given thy only Son to die for our Sins and to rise for our Justification The Connexion is Grant us so to die unto sin which is the sense of to put away the leaven of Malice that we may serve thee in pureness of living and truth i. e. we may live unto God 2. He instanceth in some things liable to misapplication as in the Visitation of the Sick By his Authority committed to me I absolve thee which the Priest having prayed God to do he applieth in Nomine domini in the Name of the Father c. By the Authority committed to me as God's Minister I absolve thee Jo. 20.23 And the Answer in the Catechism The Body and Bloud of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the Faithful in the Lord's Supper i. e. in a spiritual but real manner by the faithful Communicants for there is sufficient caution given against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation So in the Exhortation for warning of the Communion Because it is requisite no Man should come to the Holy Communion but with a full trust in God's Mercy and with a quiet Conscience For if St. Paul says we may not partake of common things with a doubting Conscience Rom. 14.5 much less of spiritual And when Men consult the Lawyers for their Estates and Physitians for their Bodies why should they not consult the Ministers for their Souls Such again are those Collects which too much incline to the Pelagian Phrase laying the force of temptation and Man's liableness to sin upon the frailty and not the corruption of our Nature as the first and 24th Sunday after Trinity what they mean by frailty that first Collect explains to be such as that without God we can do no good thing which is the great corruption of our Nature and no Doctrine concerning the corruption of Nature is more plain than that in our Articles Lastly Some Collects he says are too fanciful and savour of the Breviary as those of St. Luke St. John Simon and Jude Answ Whatever in the Breviaries are taken out of the Scripture or Authentick and Ancient Ecclesiastical History is not therefore to be rejected and that St. Luke was that beloved Physitian mentioned Col. 4.14 is the constant assertion of all Interpreters and the express words of the Scripture therefore no Legend Of these he says That in a sort they need amendment And so doth the Judgment of this nice Enquirer who I fear hath lost his Rationale which he might easily supply from Dr. Comber's or Bishop Sparrow's Discourses A Man would think this Writer to have been hired to betray the Cause of the Dissenters by his weak and impertinent Arguments for its defence and a great conviction it will be to many that there need no Alterations to be made when their prime Advocate insists on such Instances as render him vain and ridiculous Many things he would add to the Office of Confirmation viz. An Exhortation on the Sunday before and a Discourse about the Nature Use and Obligation of it and a serious Exhortation after it with some Inlargements of the Collects by all which he provides to bring down the Bishops to more labour than he would have any Country-Minister to perform considering what other Offices they usually perform at the same time viz. Administration of the Holy Sacraments Ordination of Priests and Deacons c. It were easie saith our Author to be copious on this Argument But he hath said enough by chusing out such instances as are beyond all exceptions for their significancy and self-evidence so that the very reading of them is a sufficient Confutation of this Author's Cavils and a Justification of them from his frivolous Accusations which not being very grateful to him as he confesseth will be very offensive to others Yet so importune are some sort of Men he will not leave the point so but will shew that this is a fit season for such Alterations when he hath not shewn the least cause much less any necessity for making of them but first he lays the blame on some that are in the Convocation that should tell him This is not a season which he would disprove by this Question Is there any thing can make that not to be seasonable which is always a Duty As if it were alway a Duty to make needless Alterations 2. Is there any Season in which we are not as much as in us lieth to seek Peace and ensue it Answ The Peace of the Church is more to be valued than of those who disquiet themselves and others in vain Was it a Season for the Representatives of our Church to declare when they were not in a condition They wanted not a tenderness toward Dissenters And is it not their Season when they are in a condition which I heartily wish they were even for the Dissenters sake because he hath said He doubts not but they would agree to the Alterations that are desired But suppose says he there were never a Dissenter in the Land I say we might have a happier and fitter Season when there would be none that watch for our haltings and seek occasion to accuse us from our own Concessions and will reject them with scorn and contempt and so our Liturgy and Worship which the Letter says was compleat and perfect before be exposed as not only infirm but so corrupt that it needed Alterations and that for