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	king_n	matter_n	1,577	5	5.6457	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34136	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 ...	C. W.	1666 (1666)	Wing C5572; ESTC R35602	67,445	80

men to accept of divine honour when it is cast upon them how much more when they shall themselves compel men by threatning Laws and Edicts to ascribe it unto them as all they do who by severe mulets and penalties constrain men to worship God not as he pleaseth or commandeth but as they please themselves It was not simply Jeroboams Idolatry nor yet his Edict or Command unto the People to worship his Idol-Calves but it was the compliance of his People with this Command that occasioned his ruine and the rooting out of his House and Posterity as it did likewise occasion the like misery to all his Successors yea and the utter ruine of his whole State and Kingdom in a short time This is clear from the express tenor of the context 1 King 12.30 compared with vers 34. of the following Chapter In the former place we read thus And this thing namely Jeroboam's setting up his two Calves vers 28 29. became a sin or turned to sin as our former translation had it meaning that in time and this not very long neither it became sin to the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth It was a sin simply yea a very great sin as soon as it was acted that is the setting up of the Calves and the pressing of the People to worship them was a great sin in Jeroboam whatsoever the consequence of it had been or whether the People had worshipped them or no or though himself repenting of it it had not been his ruine But it did not BECOME a sin of that sad consequence as to be destructive to Jerohoam and his house but by means of the Peoples compliance with him in it as is manifest from the former place where this in the latter part of the verse is rendred as a reason or an account why and how Jeroboams act in setting up the Calves and causing the People to worship them became a sin of that heavy consequence unto him viz. that the People generally approved and practised that worship And this became a sin for the People went to worship before the one even unto Dan or as far as Dan implying it seems that the King himself and his Nobles and Attendants worshipped before the other which was set up in Bethel the Kings Court or Chappel being here Amos 7.13 Or else it may import the great zeal and forwardness of the People in comporting with their King in his Idolatrous Worship and that even those of them that dwelt in Bethel and in places near to it would needs travel as far as Dan which was at the furthest distance from Bethel the Land would afford to worship before the Calf set up there that in Bethel not being prepared and fitted for such Devotion till some while after as may be gathered from vers 32 33. From which passages compared it plainly appears that had not the People obeyed him in his idolatrous device it might have been a lengthning out of his Tranquillity and his Posterity after him might have sat upon his Throne Yea and probably it might through the Blessing of God have proved a means or occasion of his Repentance It is not unlike but that Jeroboam's Priests made of the basest of the People having once tasted of the Kings Favour and bountiful Allowance settled upon their Priesthood strengthned his hand all they could in his Idolatrous Worship bewitching him with this or some such lying and dangerous notion as this No Calves no King even as those who are known by the Name of Bishops but not by the properties or works of Bishops indeed being advanced unto large Revenues and much worldly Pomp and Power by Christian Kings are very solicitous and careful to nourish this preposterous and importune conceit in them upon all occasions No Bishop no King But as unto Jeroboam Calves and no King had been the more prudential and safe Maxime of State not the want or pulling down of his Calves but the setting of them up being the true and real cause as we lately heard from the Records of the holy Ghost himself why after a short time he was no King nor any of his house long after him So is it more then conjecture that BISHOPS AND NO KING would make the far better Article in the Politick Creed of Christian Kings and more worthy to be believed than the contrary No Bishop no King But this by the way It hath been shewed from the Scriptures that to idolize a Person or to ascribe Divine Honour unto any man either directly as the People did unto Herod or indirectly as the Ten Tribes did unto Jeroboam their King in accepting that way of worshipping God which he prescribed unto them is to awaken the eye of Divine Jealousie upon him unless he refuseth or disclaimeth it when it is tender'd unto him which though Angels and holy Men have always done yet it hath not been the wisdom or manner of Kings and Great Men in the World so to do Jacob we know loved his Wise Rachel very tenderly and affectionately yet when she required of him that which was proper onely unto God to give and so reflected Divine Honour upon him Give me Children or else I die he being as it seems suddenly struck with the apprehension of the danger which such a saying might expose him unto reproveth her sharply for her inconsiderateness therein but withal amandeth and dispatcheth away that Divine Honour which was put upon him unto him who was the right owner of it Am I saith he in Gods stead c. Gen. 30.1 2. And as they who comply with Kings and Rulers in their Commands concerning Forms of Worship of humane device are in such their complyance great Enemies unto them so on the other hand they who chuse rather to abide the bitterest blast of their displeasure then to please them with conforming themselves to their wills and pleasures in such cases are in this detrectation of their Obedience unto them their real Friends Thus Daniel notwithstanding his refusal to obey the Decree of King Darius being unlawful said unto him Also unto thee or against thee O King have I done no hurt Dan. 6.22 In which words he seems as well to imply that they who had obeyed him in that his Decree had been unfaithful unto him had cast a snare upon him and done him harm as to assert his own integrity and goodness of heart towards him And that the holy man was so far from doing any hurt to the King by changing his Command that he did him much good by it appears by the sequel of the Chapter where we und hi● by means hereof enlightned with the knowledge of the true God and giving a full testimony to his excellent Greatness and Power and recommending his Worship and Service unto all his Dominions vers 26 27. Of like happy consequence unto King Nebuchadnezzar was the like disobedience of those three faithful

or by the use of means may be capable of it as all Ministers of the Gospel generally are presumed to be By conceived Prayer I do not mean onely that kind of Prayer which is conceived and uttered ex tempore without study or premeditation or which is never used but once by him that uttereth it but that likewise which is or hath been conceived framed and digested by him that uttereth it although with deliberation and study and hath been frequently at several times especially if with any occasional variations used by him In the Scriptures especially in the New Testament where the light shines clearest for the discovery of the mind of God in all points concerning Prayer and VVorship we hardly find the same prayer used the second time by the same person For though Christ be said to have prayed the same words a second and a third time yet by comparing Mat. 20.39 with v. 42. 44. and Mark 14. v. 35. with 36. it appears that it is to be understood of the same words in sense matter and import or in effect not the same in sound letters or syllables words being put for matters or things frequently in the Scriptures yea all the Prayers here recorded to have been made either by Christ himself or by his Apostles or other holy persons and which found acceptance which God were framed by them with a special and particular reference unto the present occasions that were before them respectively and therefore cannot but be judged to have been conceived Prayers in the strictest sence of the VVords yea all the Exhortations unto the heavenly Exercise and Duty of Prayer delivered either by Christ or his Apostles intended onely that kind of Prayer which we commonly call conceived Prayer which the Saints were to conceive and indite by the help of the Spirit of God Rom. 8.27 which they who believed did receive John 7.39 Act. 5.32 Rom. 5.5 8.14 15 16. 2 Cor. 5.5 Gal. 3.2 Ephes 1.13 1 Thes 4.8 1 Joh. 2.27 3.24 4.13 which places at least the most of them cannot be understood either of the miraculous Gift of the Holy Ghost or of the giving of him to the Apostles onely and some particular Christians with them This will be evident unto those that shall please to take a little pains to peruse and ponder them Several others of like import might be added unto them Besides that the said Exhortations unto Prayer were meant of conceived Prayer and not of praying by any stinted form imposed at least by any Civil Authority least of all imposed with threatnings of Civil Mulcts and Penalties are all of them Truths so full of their own Light that to levy any further proof of them would be but as the lighting up of a Candle to help men to see the Light of the Sun Books and forms of Prayer of humane contrivance and imposition would we may very reasonably presume have been in the days of those Exhortations and for many days after them as prodigious and astonishing unto Christians as the turning of the Sun into darkness and the Moon into blood 2dly Whereas it was pleaded That a Prayer framed by the concurrent abilities and gifts of several pious and learned men and this upon mature consideration must needs in Reason be a more effectual Prayer and better accepted with God than a Prayer conceived and brought forth on the sudden by a particular man and he many times of no great parts or learning neither I answer 1. This plea of comparison between prayer and prayer be it admitted doth not make the face of our Common-Prayer-Book to shine at all For who can make affidavit that the prayers here are the issue of the abilities or gifts I do not say of many but of any pious or learned man There is little question to be made but that in Latine it first saw the light of the Sun when the gross darkness of Popery was spread over the face of the Earth in these parts of the world and when the mother of it the Church of Rome I mean was guilty but of little Learning and less Piety It is likest to have been the officious elucubration of some superstitious Monk or Friar calculated by the best of his art and skill for the meridian of the devotions of that Apostate Church in his dayes As for those worthy and good men in King Edward's dayes who with a much better intent than event took pains to fetch it out of Latine into English making account that they had left all the dregs and excrementitious matter behind them we were their compurgators formerly that they were not the Authors or Compilers of this unhappy Book nor guilty of the folly committed in the begetting of it 2. The goodness or excellency of a Prayer for matter phrase and structure is rather an argument why it should be left free for men to use when and as far as they see cause than why it should be imposed Because 1. The imposition of it is rather matter of prejudice and disparagement unto it than otherwise Imposers seldom dealing in such commodities which are choice sound and good but very frequently in those which are faulty and base 2. The imposition of it alters the property of the goodness of it makes it to become an Idol as we formerly argued the case and consequently exposeth it to the jealousie and high displeasure of God and hereby to an utter abolition and ruine as we concluded likewise from the Scriptures And therefore as it is better of the two to make an Idol of Dirt or Clay or some such vile material than of Silver or Gold or of any thing of value because it is better that that which is of little worth should perish and be lost than that which is more precious and useful so is it in this respect at least more to be wished that such prayers and such forms of Divine Service so called which are corrupt and not fit to be used by any good Christian upon any terms should be imposed than those which are more commendable and might be some wayes serviceable and helpful to the piety and devotions of good people otherwise 3. and lastly for this As Samuel in reproving Saul demandeth Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and Sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is letter than jacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Lambs 1 Sam. 15.22 So is a Prayer conceived and brought forth in obedience unto the Counsel and Will of God though it be not so eloquent nor the matter of it so choice nor the method or frame of it so exact of better acceptance with God than a Prayer read out of a Book whether without or contrary unto the Command of God for it hath been proved from the Scriptures that these two in the case of Worship are but of one and the same consideration yea though this prayer for matter language and frame