Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	soul_n	world_n	1,708	5	4.6899	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54945	A discourse of prayer wherein this great duty is stated, so as to oppose some principles and practices of Papists and fanaticks; as they are contrary to the publick forms of the Church of England, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament. By Thomas Pittis, D.D. one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. Wherefore, that way and profession in religion, which gives the best directions for it, (viz. prayer) with the most effectual motives to it, and most aboundeth in its observance, hath therein the advantage of all others. Dr. Owen in his preface to his late discourse of the work of the Holy SPirit in prayer, &c.	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2314; ESTC R220541	149,431	404

that have been duly educated in the Christian religion and therefore it must be stripped of all the gaudy luxuriances of an Orator not welted with Metaphors nor darkned by any figurative allusions but it ought to be as naked as truth as clear as the light and as plain and open as innocence it self This must not be spoken like the answers of the Oracles in words that may beguile and deceive the simple but it ought to be as plain as the questions of the inquirers were otherwise let the language be what it will 't is but like a prayer in an unknown tongue amusing only but not edifying the Church nor can any person who does not apprehend it rationally pronounce Amen to it because he sets his seal to a blank which men will not do in other cases nay for all that he knows to that which binds him to his own ruin And such prayers S. Paul both redargues and condemns 1 Cor. 14. Secondly our words in prayer must be grave and serious not intermixed with the levities of a Stage as if our words and actions were to be theatrical in prayer and a man were to make a raree shew in religion we must not turn our devotions into a canting burlesque nor cause the weighty conceptions of our souls to be breathed forth in air and fancy as if we were courting a Mistress or a common Hall But our prayers must be wise and grave the business of thought and careful premeditation and our words must be suited to the weight and grandeur of the matter of our petitions What a strange thing is it to hear a man beg by a Romance and to adorn his rags with joques or flowers This better proclaims his madness than his wants What an odd thing is it when a person comes to beg an alms and yet rants a● and tears his benefactor who should be stow it This may be expected at Bethlem only but not in a Church Certainly therefore it must startle and amaze us to see and hear bold men thu● acting towards God Almighty himsel● To find persons raving in their prayer● as if they would hector the gre●● Maker of heaven and earth and sca●● him into a compliance with their d●sires by a loud noise bold words 〈◊〉 too confident importunities woul● make a rational and wise man wo●der where they had learned the Trade Or to hear a man ridiculou●ly groaning and yelping out his prayers in tones unbecoming solemnity making grimaces and wry faces as he had the gripes in his belly 〈◊〉 would think he walked the fields o●ten and had taken notes from the very Cripples Nay to a stranger that had seen and heard both it would admit of some consideration to guess which was the inventor of the faculty and he would conclude both to be artificial but neither to be fitting in the publick service of God Almighty Nay though we pray upon the foundations of promises and Jesus Christ has died for us yet to urge Gods gracious and free promises in such daring and strange language as if it had not been his kindness to make them or our obedience were so compleat that he could not suspend the favours that we petition for destroys that free grace which at other times we magnifie and extol in such a manner as to leave our selves little or no duty to perform As if God must presently be unjust to us if he does not when we please answer our petitions and give us our reward Strange that men in their addresses unto God should no better consider their distance and dependance but assume to themselves such familiarity with their Maker as if they were either his equals or superiors thus robbing him of his glory that they may the better cloath themselves with shame But shall the potsherd fly at the Potters head or dust and ashes endeavour to cloud and obscure heaven shall we do thus who are formed out of the clay whom one word from him to whom we thus rudely address can sentence to an everlasting silence and make the shades below our habitations Nay shall he that can cast our bodies into a grave and our souls into most horrid darkness in the twinkling of an eye and both at last into everlasting burnings who has the disposal of all the blessings and miseries of this life and the eternal rewards and punishments of the next shall he be addressed to in such a manner as if we were his familiar acquaintance Certainly the most high and lofty one the great God of heaven and earth is not so small and inconsiderable a thing as some mens prayers seem to make him Let us hear himself arguing with such rude and careless men Mal. 1.6 A son sayes he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master If I be then a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts unto you O Priests That despise my name and yet say wherein have we despised it The Psalmist gives excelent advice in such a case as this Serve the Lord with fear nay our very rejoycing must be with reverence Psal 2.11 And if the great Kings and Judges of the earth to whom David there speaks must thus perform their duty and service to him who is higher than the highest much more ought those who are of a meaner allay to be admonished not to be malepert with their Maker lest instead of favour they receive vengeance and he gives no other answer to their prayers but a speech of Hailstones and coals of fire Let men therefore use such expressions in their addresses to God as may evidence some dread and awe upon their minds and declare such humility and reverence as become those that draw nigh to God Saint Paul justified himself to the Ephesian Bishops by his deportment among them at all seasons but more especially in that he had served the Lord with all humility of mind which they could no otherways discern but by the outward agreement of his words and actions Act. 20.19 And since our words in prayer are only to express our inward sentiments the thoughts and desires of our souls 't is as requisite that they should be grave and serious as they ought to be modest and humble and as necessary too as that our minds should be qualified and adorned with such vertues when we come to speak or present our selves before the great Majesty of the whole world Nay one is so natural a sign of the other that when gravity and humility are planted in the soul they will sprout forth and spread their branches in the words of mens mouths and deportment of their bodies so that where these last things are wanting we have just cause to suspect nay conclude the profession or affirmation that men have the other to be nothing else but a sham and a pretence Thirdly Our words in prayer must be expressive and full because otherwise they answer not the end for which

that knocketh it shall be opened Matth. 7.7 8. Furthermore he confirms this by the addition of a promise to use his utmost interest in it and his Mediatory authority to bestow what we lawfully pray for And certainly in this state of Christianity we may fully depend upon his Intercession and ability Because all power is given to him both in heaven and in earth See therefore what he ingages for John 14.13 14. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do and doubles the promise for the greater assurance to his Disciples Nay not only so but repeats it with a double asseveration Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Joh. 16.23 24 and 27. Our Saviour was so careful to prevent or scatter all those fears that like a Cloud hung over his Disciples heads upon the apprehensions they might have of his departure from them that he does not only promise to send the Comforter to them but assures them upon the word of truth that when in any straits and exigencies of affairs they should through him make their addresses unto God they should have ready audience and a quick return made to their prayers And therefore he bids them ask and they shall receive that their joy might be full and gives a sufficient argument to encourage them to petition and emboldens their faith and hope in their prayers because the Father himself has a great kindness for all those who evidence their affection to the Son of his bosom and the delight of his soul So that sooner shall the earth be dissolved and the heavens melt than such promises so powerfully confirmed fail of their accomplishment nor can any man possibly distrust them when he is himself that concludes God to be faithful and immutable and does not think our Saviour Christ to be the greatest Impostor in the World 2. God has heard mens prayers for such things as they have asked even when he had seemed to have determined beforehand what was contrary to the end of their petitions And therefore although he knows our wants before we utter and make them publick by open addresses yet as his command for prayer and promises of audience takes off that Objection So if his determinations have de facto been altered upon mens devout prayers and humble supplications it doth not only prove some Decrees conditional but sufficiently baffles all discouragements to prayer which we may receive from any uncouth and absurd Doctrines of men concerning absolute and irrespective determinations with reference to the beings here on Earth which in their consequence render prayers useless and justifie what they call persecution since in my opinion they should follow or at least submit to Providence if they state it right as well in what the vulgar call misfortunes as they pretended to do in their glories and in their triumphs But though Gods Providence is over all his works and like a wise Governour he superintends the World Yet since secret things belong unto him and only revealed to us and to our children His apparent commands are to be the rules for our practice and not his obscure and hidden Decrees which mystical and pretending persons who confidently assume the monopoly of Dreams would fain have authority to soothsay upon that they may not appear to be ignorant in that which no man can know and yet these would willingly when it might be propitious to their designs resolve all their villany into them But what a strange confusion would be introduced into the World although sincerity did attend opinion if Subjects should proportion their actions of life according to the uncertain conjectures they have of the intententions and designs of their Prince and not guide themselves by his known Laws The Laws would then no longer be his but their own and upon an uncertain though frightful prevision they would rebel either by nature or instinct and wipe their mouths whilst they gravely make Providence their Leader Such would our deportment be towards God should we measure our Duties by Gods Decrees which we could never know and leave his written Laws manifested in his word by which he has declared his will to men And certainly men who make Providence to be their conductor in these affairs though they have been in earnest yet now are but in jest with us since it seems but to serve their turn at such a time in which they say they groan under and cry out on persecution from those who having gained the whip hand exercise it very gently upon them nor would I have it were it in my power too severe upon the backs of any nor any ways intolerable on the Masters of Assemblies And truly I know not but it might be born with a little patience though they should be compell'd to take Country air to preserve their own health when they make others sick in the Town by staying But however it fares with particular contrivers that follow Providence whilst it comports with their own interest yet certainly whatever may be the mystical conclusions of any Enthusiastical men whose fancy may blow them up to the conceipt and for ought some others know to the very sense of an Inspiration Providence which was always dark and full of riddles was never designed as a Rule to mens lives because from this are frequently deduced opposite and quite contrary conclusions Alas men who when blown up like a bladder are no more though when broken they may make a louder crack cannot see through the Clouds of Heaven nor discern the Council of the adorable Trinity nor read the Decrees or Records above that accordingly they may act here on Earth Mortal men in this variable state below are to confine themselves to the Law and to the Testimony and if any speak not according to this word whatever illuminations they may pretend it is because there is no light within them Isai 8.20 And verily there is no cause to doubt if our Maker be a God of truth and designed not to impose upon the World but that I may affirm without any dangerous opposition that his secret will does not contradict his revealed notwithstanding the boldness and impiety of the distinction as it is made use of in Gods dealing with men or as the Symbol and infallible test of one party renouncing all Symbolical Ceremonies Having thus too largely prefaced that which I promised to prove which I strived to check my Pen in but my understanding would dictate to my will and both must unavoidably guide my hand I come now to give some instances where prayer has prevailed with God to grant petitions when yet he had seemed to have determined things contrary to the sence of them And I shall not fetch too large a compass but name a few The first shall be the case of the Israelites when in the absence of Moses on the Mount beyond their expectation they had caused a molten

Reader that there is one part of their worship in the Eucharist which is the adoration of the Host that Coster the Jesuit in Euchrid controv Cap. 8. Sect. 10. says cannot escape this charge upon it if the foundation of it be not true For says he if the true substantial body of Christ be not in that Sacrament but what we receive is in substance only bread and wine Christ dealt unworthily with his Church who by occasion of his own words This is my Body left it for 1500 Years together in so great an error and such Idolatry as was never seen or heard of in the world And moreover he delivers in the proof of this last assertion That their error was much more tolerable who worshipped a Gold or Silver Statue or any Image of other matter for God as the Gentiles in time pass'd worshipped theirs or such as worship a piece of red Cloth lifted up on the top of a Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or living creatures as anciently the Egyptians did than the error of those who worship a bit of bread which hitherto says he but very falsely the Christians have done supposing Transubstantiation not true So that according to their own confession if the sense of this Doctor renders his own opinion probable If our Saviours substantial and corporeal flesh and blood be not in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper But Christs words are to be understood Figuratively according to the expressions used before in the celebration of the Passover in which Protestants have an apparent advantage in their proofs and arguments then any man may safely say that the Papists are Idolaters when they worship a wafer instead of God Nay the worst sort of Idolaters in the world as the Jesuit says in the forementioned place And this deserves not in reason any severe censure among themselves because upon their Doctrine of probabilities the opinion of any one allowed Doctor among them may be safely followed without peril of damnation And upon the same principle it may be very lawful to shift opinions when these Doctors contradict one another This I am sure when urged home by one that has more skill in Controversie than I will take off that by which they endeavour to charge those Protestants with great uncharitableness who draw this impeachment high against them when they accuse them of Idolatry in their adoration of the Host And invalidate the best answer they have upon the supposition that Transubstantiation is false viz. That 't is true to them because they believe it and therefore although adoration of the Host would be Idolatry in another of a contrary persuasion yet they cannot be guilty of such a crime Because they worship not the Bread which they believe upon the words of consecration to be absent but the Divinity of Christ which they suppose to be present together with his body and his soul And If it be so then after they have conjured him into the accidents of bread and wine so that these hide him from any discovery by the bodily senses of mankind they seem first to make him present then adore what they have so made and at last eat up and devour him unless they can again slip him away betwixt their fingers and their teeth together Yet if Transubstantiation which is the foundation of all this be false then we may still charge the Papists with Idolatry according to the probable opinion of the Jesuit But what have we dull Protestants to do with this or their Doctrine of probabilities by which they only innocently design to serve their own turns To enter upon such points too far will overdo my present purpose And I may in the winding up of the bottom be accused for charging the Romish Church with the Doctrines and conclusions of particular men and causing all the excellent orders among them to speak by the mouths of the Jesuits which some Papists for designs best known to themselves will readily and not without cause considering all things confess to be the most pernicious Order or rather Sect that ever was established in the Roman Church i. e. the worst in the Christian World Let us leave this then and come out from among them and meddle no longer with the nice affairs of particular Societies It will be sufficient for my present purpose if from my precedent Discourse of prayer I may justly and by due consequence infer that the Publick Service of the Church of Rome is such as is repugnant to Gods revealed Will that it may justly be branded with Superstition according to the proper signification of the word that it is such as the greater number of those who are commonly present at it cannot accompany with due and proper intentions of their minds that their prayers are such as God has no where promised to hear and their methods of address such as Christianity never prescribed nor were by any Church in the first times ever practised nay not by their own till they had debauched the best Religion in the World to advance themselves corrupted good Manners and caused the principles of the Gospel to truckle to their fancies and began to Sacrifice to their own net and made St. Peters Successors at Rome such cunning Fishermen as catched only such Fish as brought money in their mouths making merchandize of mens souls that they might gain a Temporal advantage by the traffick These are Heads sufficient for a Protestant to Discourse upon But I must omit such and many more if I dilate coherently to what I have confined my self And therefore I shall not now make discovery of that apparent Sacriledge in the Church of Rome depriving the people nay the Priests too unless they consecrate of half their Communion in the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper whilst they think a pretty invention of concomitancy will excuse their theft when our Saviour instituted and gave the signs of his body and blood distinct from each other that his real death might be the better signified since his blood was actually separated from his body Nor shall I write at this time concerning the villany of their Confessions and Absolutions which as they use them to base and bloody and Secular advantages are most intolerable nor of all the ridiculous indefensible and burdensom Ceremonies with which they usually so load their devotions that baffling all true Evangelical worship confound the intentions of mens minds turn the reasonable service of their bodies into Pageanty and Stage play make their prayers which they pretend to offer nothing but an external shew the labour of the lips and outside devotion turning their Priesthood into such a trade that all the preparation of Learning and Divinity can enter them but Novices into the Schools of Exercise and they had need serve another Apprentiship to teach them the postures and Giggombobs of action Though these and many other things as vain and bad are prescribed and commanded in their Books of Offices