Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	communion_n	separate_v	1,943	5	9.5273	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51305	Letters on several subjects with several other letters : to which is added by the publisher two letters, one to the Reverend Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, and the other to the Reverend Mr. Bentley : with other discourses / by Henry More ; publish'd by E. Elys.	More, Henry, 1614-1687.; Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707.	1694 (1694)	Wing M2664; ESTC R27513	57,265	148

Divine Inspiration will readily grant that in two or three Lines I destroy your Hypothesis viz. That there is no other Difference or Distinction betwixt the Father Son and Holy Ghost than there is betwixt Infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power It is most agreeable to the Holy Scriptures to say That Infinite Goodness is Infinite Wisdom and Power and that Infinite Wisdom is Infinite Goodness and Power and that Infinite Power is Infinite Goodness and Wisdom But it is most contrary to the Holy Scriptures to say That the Father is the Son and the Holy Ghost and that the Son is the Father and the Holy Ghost and that the Holy Ghost is the Father and the Son Your ridiculing the Heavenly Senniments of St. Augustin concerning the Divine Beauty is such an Abomination that I cannot recite it without an Horresco Referens as a Preface to the Recitation of such a Blasphemous Harangue P. 4. Let us seriously consider How could Epicurus more Graphically describe his Idle Voluptuous Deity than by comparing him to a Beautiful Lady pleasing her self with the Image of her fair Face reflected in a bright smooth Glass or How could he give a better Account of his regardlesness of the World than by saying his Life his Glory and his Pleasure are all his Interest and and these are determined to one another Now I pray thee Reader what is all this to thee or me but a Discouragement from hoping any good from such a God and consequently from paying him any Love or Service Be the Lady never so perfect in Beauty her Glass never so exactly clear her Delight in it never so ravishing what is this to the well-ordering of her Family but an hindrance A Noble Eloquent and Judicious Writer in his Advice to a Daughter telleth her That her Servants will more value her House-keeper than her Ladyship if they find she takes no care of them And some will say It is not so unreasonable to Worship the Sun who is the World 's great Benefactor as that Sun ' s Creator if he leaves them without farther regard to their happiness Now I pray thee Reader What is all this to thee or me Is it nothing to me that my God is the Infinity of True Beauty that He is all that I can desire all that deserves my Love The Divine Beauty implies the Glory of infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power and is all this nothing to me It implies the Glory of the Justice of the Divine Vengeance on Impenitent Sinners as they are Impenitent and the Glory of Infinite Mercy towards Sinners that repent or such who tho they do not truly repent have not so hardened their hearts but that they are capable of Repentance And is all this nothing to me Is it nothing to me that the Divine Beauty being Infinite is in all Things and Events Sin only excepted so that whilst I sincerely believe in IESUS all the Objects of my Thoughts are Matter of Joy and Satisfaction unto me The King of Terrors ceases to be terrible and becomes a most useful Subject to those that obey the Royal Law of Liberty and so become Kings and More than Conquerors over all their Enemies This Happiness they attain unto by a true Sense or Practical Knowledge of the Divine Beauty the Infinity of Light and Love And is all this nothing to me Certainly the Divine Beauty is All Things to me One Glympse of it is enough to quench all such burning desires which torment the Souls of Covetous Ambitious and Voluptuous Men. This Beauty do I see in the Image of the Invisible God the Brightness of the Glory of the Father of Lights and the Express Image of his Person Your kind Reflexion upon the Mahometans p. 19. puts me in mind of that most Remarkable Passage in a Learned Book Entituled A Discourse of Natural and Reveal'd Religion Chap. 26. Before 〈◊〉 take my leave of Mahomet it will not be amiss to Advertise my Reader if he be a Christian of the Danger both he and all other Christian are in of being reduc'd under the Slavery of this Mortal and Common Enemy so that how prosperous soever the Christian Arms are or have been we are still in greater danger than ever of being ruin'd by the Legions of these Infidels not those of their Spahi's or Ianizaries but by those of another Order far more mischievous forasmuch as they fight under our Colours and pretend to be of our Party such Enemies are ever look'd upon as the most dangerous for they are rarely discovered till they have given the Mortal Blow Now these are the Socinians which tho exploded the World above a Thousand Years ago under the Appellation of Arians are in these our days risen again from the Grave and like Spectrums appear every where in the dark P. 29. You say That St. Gregory Nazianzen in his 35th Oration maketh the Unity no other than p●cifical wherein he agreeth with his great Friend St. Basil as appeareth by the Letter sent him expresly upon this Subject by that great Father Have you any Fear of God or Shame of the World who have the Impudence to publish so Notorious a Lye These are St. Gregory Nazianzen's Words in his 38th Oration and there is nothing in his 35th but what is fully agreeable to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the first Verse of one of his Hymns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Unity cannot be Specifical or under any Genus which is above all being Absolutely Infinite There is not one Word in any one of St. Basil's Epistle to St. Gregory Nazianzen that might give any Man an Occasion to conceit That he thought the Unity no other then Specifical Blush and be confounded at the reading of these Words of that Holy Father wherein he expresses his Sense of the Divine Unity De Spiritu Sancto Cap. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Unity is Specifical there are Actually or Potentially more than one of the same Kind I shall now give you some of my Reflections upon the Conclusion of your Sophistical Essay Some I hope say you will find satisfaction in the very Doctrine as now stated Those that cannot fully grant their Assent and Consent to the Doctrine for its own sake may find some Ease if not full Cure of their Scruples when they Conform to our Establish'd Worship for Peace sake The former indeed is the best Fruit but the later is not contemptible If I obtain either of them I have already a sufficient Reward Yet I hope for a greater from that Lord whom I have thus endeavoured to serve and who hath said Blessed are the Peace-makers Here you plainly discover your Develish Design to bring the Socinians into the Communion of the Church of England and consequently to Corrupt and Destroy Her I grant That an Unlawful Petition in the Public Prayers is no sufficient Cause for any Man to separate himself from such a Religious Assembly which otherwise he should he obliged

Primitive Church or any one of the Inferiour Clergy with the Allowance of his Bishop did ever undertake to perform the Public Worship of Almighty God without the Use of the Lord's Prayer I do most confidently Aver That the want of the Practical Understanding of the Lord's Prayer is the chief Cause of all the Sins and Errours in the Christian World Wherefore I earnestly beseech all those that have Named the Name of Christ to joyn with me in the daily Contemplation of the Divine Sence of these Words deliver'd unto us by our Blessed SAVIOUR as a Compleat Directory for All Our Desires OUr Father which art in Heaven Hastowed be Thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our Daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A Vindication of the LITURGY of the Church of England THE Author of these Reflections most stedfastly resolves by the Help of Almighty GOD to embrace Truth and to reject Error wheresoever he finds it He desires That the Friends of R. B. would take these Reflections into their deepest consideration with the same candour and benevolence to all Mankind with which he communicates them to the World I am glad to find these words pag. 233 234. I would not be understood as if I intended the putting away of all set Times and Places to Worship God forbid I should think of such an Opinion Nay we are none of those that forsake the Assembly of our selves together but have even set Times and Places in which we carefully meet together to wait upon God and worship him These words following in the same Page require our Animadversion But the Limitation we condemn is That whereas the Spirit of God should be the immediate Actor moreover Perswader and Influencer of Man in the particular Acts of Worship when the Saints are met together this Spirit is limited in its Operations by setting up a particular Man or Men to preach and pray in Man's Will and all the rest are excluded from so much as believing that they are to wait for God's Spirit to move them in such things and so they neglecting that which should quicken them in themselves and not waiting to feel the pure Breathings of God's Spirit so as to obey them are led meerly to depend upon the Preacher and hear what he will say Answ. I shall undertake by God's assistance to vindicate the Use of the Liturgy of the Church of England the principal parts whereof are the Lord's Prayer and the Holy Psalms I say the Psalms for they are to be us'd in our Religious Assemblies as the Means or Instruments to lift up our Hearts unto God I would here avoid all Disputes concerning the Ordination of Ministers In our Assemblies the People bear a part with the Minister or Preacher in using their Voice in worshiping Almighty God The Spirit cannot be limited in its Operations by any thing that is taught or practised according to any Order of the Church of England We are taught not to Pray in Man's Will but according to the Will of GOD which is our Sanctification We are taught to wait for God's Spirit to move us to the performance of any thing He would have us to do but we are taught also to believe that God's Spirit is always ready to assist the Sincere those who desire above all things to do His Will to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth in Saying or Hearing the Words of our Liturgy in the Congregation The very moment that any Soul truly devout waits for or expects the assistance of the Spirit of Christ to help her to perform any known Duty towards GOD or towards Man she never fails to receive it Concerning the Psalms I shall speak hereafter It is the Duty of all Christians at all times and in all places to retain in their Hearts the Habit Ground or Principle of all those Holy Desires which are exprest in the Lord's Prayer this 't is to pray continually When the words of this Prayer are recited in the Congregation it is impossible but those who have the Habit of those Holy Desires in their Hearts should worship God in Spirit and in Truth viz. in the act or exercise of those Desires by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit whose operation never ceases but when Man in his own Will or Self-love doth suppress or totally extinguish such Holy Desires or Aspirations I am very sorry to see so ingenious and learned a person as R. B. err so grosly about the Lord's Prayer in which he shews himself tainted with that Impurity of Mind for which Dr. Owen has been so often corrected p. 245. We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us c. Rom. 8. 26. But says R. B. If this Prayer had been such a prescribed Form of Prayer to the Church that had not been true neither had they been ignorant what to pray nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them p. 245. To this I answer That it is impossible that any man should actually know as they ought to know the sence or meaning of any word in the Lord's Prayer but by an actual Influence of the Divine Spirit upon his Heart and Mind I must therefore proclaim to all the World That it was the Spirit of Error which suggested these words to R. B. If this Prayer had been such a prescribed Prayer to the Church that had not been true neither had they been ignorant what to pray nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them By what I have already said it appears that if by these words our Adversaries c. p. 264. he means all those who worship God according to the English Liturgy he 's very Uncharitable Our Adversaries says he whose Religion is all for the most part out-side and such whose Acts are the meer product of Man's natural Will and Abilities as they can preach so they can pray when they please and therefore have their set particular Prayers Answ. We acknowledge that we can never pray as we ought but by the assistance of the Spirit of God but his Assistance is always ready for us If at any time we fail of it we our selves are the cause we have it not As to set particular Prayers we own no Prayer but the Lord's Prayer further than the sense of it is implied in some part of that Compleat Body of Vocal Prayer that Divine Summary or Breviary of the Expressions of all holy Desires p. 266. Because this outward Prayer depends upon the inward as that which must follow it and cannot be acceptably perform'd but as attended with a superadded Influence and Motion of the Spirit Therefore