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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	church_n	good_a	1,528	5	3.4283	3	false

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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

Caesarea and Gregory Thaumaturgus before him at Neocaesarea and all Pastours in Justin Martyr 's and Tertullian 's days What all Pastours that is all Bishops did in those days we have no leisure neither are we much concern'd now to examine Indeed Nicephorus tells us Non omnes quamvis ejusdem Eccles Histor lib. 12. cap. 34. opinionis essent easdem traditiones in Ecclesiis servarunt c. All that were of the same opinion did not hold the same Traditions And they which maintained the same Faith did not observe the same Customs And he gives a reason why the first Ministers of the Word left such observances free to every ones choice Ut quisque non metu ibid. aut necessitate quapiam adductus quod bonum est deligere sequi posset That every one might follow what is good out of choice and not be led to it out of fear and necessity But to fetch the ground of this diversity from the very first Original we may consider that where the Apostles planted the Christian Faith they likewise establish'd such an Order such Rites and Forms as they thought most apt to promote the Worship of God and the Edification of his Church But because they did not consult aforehand about the institution of these Rites c. as they had done about the Faith which they were more chiefly concerned to plant and propagate Evenit ut statos ritus ab aliis diversos suae quisque provinciae servandos tradiderit hence it came to pass that every one of them delivered to his own Province such Rites to be observed as were different from the rest Which Rites so diversly established by them were out of a reverence to their Authority and Memory still retained by their Successors for so Nicephorus concludes Dissensiones tales in Ecclesiis invaluisse opinor reverentiâ ibid. eorum qui eis ab initio praefuerunt qui illis deinde successerunt Nam ii tanquam leges quasdam ab illis acceptas per manus posteris tradidere non satis pium neque ferendum esse arbitrati si traditiones in quibus educati essent non honorificè colerent sed contemptim rejicerent The like hath * Hist Eccles lib. 7. cap. 19. Sozomen before him But there is besides another reason for the continuance of this diversity of Rites and Usages in the Churches of several Nations because the rage of Tyrants would not suffer the Governours of the Church to meet together to consult and by their common Suffrages to establish one Form and Order for the Universal Church And yet what was done by Basil and other Bishops in their several Dioceses doth not at all favour the Pretensions of these Dissenters for whatever the Bishops were allowed to doe yet the single Presbyters were alwaies obliged to use such forms as were duely examined and prescribed for them witness that ancient Canon which we find though with some small variety in three or four * Justell Codex Can. Eccl. Afric Can. 103. Conc. Carthag 3 Can. 23. Conc. Milevit Can. 12. several places in these words Placuit ut Preces vel Orationes seu Missae quae probatae fuerint in Concilio sive Praefationes sive Commendationes seu Manûs impositiones ab omnibus celebrentur Nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à Prudentioribus tractatae vel comprobatae in Synodo fuerint nè fortè aliquid contra Fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum They would allow no Prayers to be used in the Church but such as were compiled by the most Prudent or approved of in a Synod lest through Ignorance or Carelesness any thing should be delivered contrary to the Faith And we find that such as were intrusted with Cure of Souls were obliged to give account at certain times to the Bishop whether the rites and ceremonies of that Church to which they were subject were observed The words of the * Franc. Synod Capitul li. 5. cap. 2. Synod are these Presbyter in parochia habitans in Quadragesima rationem ordinem Ministerii sui sive de Baptismo sive de Fide Catholica sive de Precibus ordine Missarum Episcopo reddat ostendat And this was a thing judged most reasonable by * in Epist ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ignatius a Contemporary with the Apostles Let there be nothing amongst you that may divide you saith he but be united to your Bishop by him be subject to God in Christ As therefore the Lord doth nothing without the Father for I can doe nothing Joh. 5. 35. of my self saith He so also let it be amongst you whether Priest or Deacon or Lay-person let him doe nothing without the Bishop Let nothing seem reasonable to you without his judgment for that thing whatsoever it be is irregular and offensive to God Come unanimously together to your devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let there be one Common Prayer one mind one hope c. From all which evidences it appears that the Liberty which we find used among the Ancients of varying in the publick Forms or Rites of the Church did not belong to single Presbyters but was the peculiar priviledge of the Bishops in their several Dioceses and through the good Providence and Grace of God that liberty was at last restrained and an Uniformity brought into the Church For so * ubi suprà lib. 12. c. 34. in pr. Nicephorus acknowledgeth Mores saith he qui antea quidem sic variè obtinuerunt nunc autem per Gratiam Dei cum tempore mutati ad consentientem concordiam apud omnes pervenerunt And besides the good Providence of God concurring to this effect 't is very well observed by a very worthy person * Mr. Thorndike The Service of God at Religious Assemblies pag. 398. that The reason why a Set Order in the Parts of Publick Service is now preferred before the disposition of the Guides of the Church from time to time is the same for which men chuse to live by positive Law rather then by the Will of their Rulers And a little after he saith Besides in Ecclesiastical matters by a set Order we attain Uniformity with other Churches to help towards the unity of the whole we avoid disputes about what is most fitting which in matters of this probable nature must needs be endless we avoid jealousies and umbrages upon that which is not customable But now 't is high time for some dutiful Sons to step in and plead the Cause of the Fathers of the Church and are not these Dissenters very like to prove good Advocates for them Heare them argue And how injurious is it to the Publick Offficers of Christ the Bishops and Pastours of the Churches to be called private men But you know if you be not too hasty to consider it Volenti non fit injuria there is no harm done

God himself to whom he is dedicated as Chrysostome and Theophylact In 1 ad Tim. 2. ad haec verba Obsecro primum omnium fieri obsecrationes c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. have it I shall take notice but of one mistake more and that is of making God a Liar If we contradict what God hath said St John tells us we make God a liar 1 Joh. 1. 10. but we doe not so when we impose upon him what he said not though this likewise be a very high indignity and abominable The Preacher shall shut up this part of our discourse and he will determine the point for us Eccles 5. 1 2. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God and be more ready to hear then to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they doe evil nor the distance betwixt themselves and his Majesty whom they do adore for he is in heaven and they on earth And now we hope it doth appear that as yet we have no reason to repent us of these desires Indeed if you can make it good as you pretend in your next words that to avoid a lesser evil we bring a far greater upon the Churches we shall have cause enough to repent of our desires But what is that greater evil Why even such as is like to strip these Nations of the glory in which they have excelled the rest of the world even a Learned able holy Ministry and a people sincere and serious and understanding in the matters of their Salvation But stay do all these glorious things flow immediately from your Liberty of venting your Conceptions of Prayer in the Pulpit suitable to the variety of Subjects and Occasions and are there none Learned able and holy amongst the Clergie none sincere serious and understanding amongst the Laity but such as are addicted to the Liberty you plead for You must needs if you have any modesty in you blush at such an assertion But because you boast so much of your Gifts and attribute that Glory wherein you presume your own Party doth excell the rest of the world to nothing else but your Inspirations or abilities for occasional prayers I shall introduce an adversary as well to us as you to vie with you in this kind and having committed you together shall leave it to the judgment of the Reader to pronounce sentence and award the prize First then that Person acknowledging both that there are Inspirations Sancta Sophia in the Preface §. 31. and that we are obliged to correspond unto them and reckoning you and your Confederates among the frantick Spirits of this Age which made pretended Inspirations or we may call them by your own name Extemporary Conceptions of prayers suitable to the variety of subjects and occasions the cause and ground of all our late Miseries He sets down what course is to be taken to prevent such mischiefs in these words We should saith he inform those unhappy souls how to dispose themselves so as to be out of danger of Diabolical illusions and to be in a capacity of receiving Inspirations truly Divine As likewise with what Caution and Prudence but withall what Fidelity they ought to comply with them But especially we ought to demonstrate and inculcate this fundamental verity That the general and most certain Precepts of Humility Obedience Unity and Peace must never receive any prejudice by any pretended Inspirations or Illuminations since those which are truly from God do establish and encrease all these vertues yea that the External Order Authority and Subordination established by God in his Church by which alone it becomes one Body and not a monstrous heap of unlike unproportionable members fighting and devouring one another must be the Rule by which to examine and judge to pronounce sentence for or against all manner of Inspirations Having laid down this his fundamental Rule he proceeds a little after to compare their Inspirations with yours in several §. 33 c. particulars And in the first place saith he here the only proper Disposition towards the receiving of supernatural Irradiations from God's holy Spirit is an abstraction of life a sequestration from all businesses that concern others and an attendance to God alone in the depth of the Spirit Whereas their Lights come never more frequently then when either being alone they yield to discontented unquiet passions and murmurings a-about the behaviour and actions of others or when in close Meetings and Conspiracies they vent such passions by Invectives against the Governours of the Church or State Secondly The Lights here desired and prayed for are such as do expell all images of Creatures and do calm all manner of Passions to the end that the Soul being in a vacuity may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure fund of the Spirit Whereas their Lights fill them with all tumults disquieting Images and Phantasms concerning the supposed miscarriages of all others but themselves and not onely heighten their Passions but urge them to most terrible desolating effects Thirdly The Prayer here acknowledged to be the most effectual Instrument to procure Divine Light is a pure recollected intime Prayer of the Spirit Whereas the Prayer that they glory in is onely an acquired ability and sleight to talk earnestly to God before others and oft thereby to communicate their passions and discontents to their Brethren Fourthly Here are no new Speculative Verities or Revelations of Mysteries pretended no private new-found-out interpretations of Scriptures bragg'd of Whereas among them every day produces a new Fancy which must gather new Company Fifthly Here the establish'd Order of God's Church and the Unity essential thereto is not prejudiced yea the Inspirations expected and obtained by pure internal Prayer do more firmly and unalterably fix souls under this Obedience and to this Order and Unity insomuch as whatsoever pretended Lights do endanger the dissolving of Unity or do cross Lawful Authority or shall be rejected by it they are presently suspected and extinguished Whereas those mens Lights teach them nothing so much as to contemn and oppose all external Authority and to dissipate Unity dispersing the Body of Christianity into innumerable Sects and Conventicles Sixthly Our Lights teach us to attend only to God and our own Souls and never to interess our selves in any care or imployment about others till evidently God's Inspirations force us and external Authority obligeth us thereto Whereas their Lights render them incapable of Solitude and thrust them abroad to be Reformers of others being themselves impatient of all Reformation and Contradiction Seventhly Our Lights make us to fear and avoid all Supereminence and Judicature all sensual pleasures defires of wealth Honour c. Whereas their Lights engage them violently and deeply in all these carnal and secular waies and for the attaining of these

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