Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	canon_n	council_n	nice_a	2,852	5	10.4936	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65781	Devotion and reason first essay : wherein modern devotion for the dead is brought to solid principles, and made rational : in way of answer to Mr J.M.'s Remembrance for the living to pray for the dead / by Thomas White, Gent.	White, Thomas, 1593-1676.	1661 (1661)	Wing W1818; ESTC R13593	135,123	316

it self All Prelates of the Church not excluding the Pope himself none of these in their qualities and degrees by which they are Judges of Christian demeanour pretending the extraordinary favours he requires to make them speak like Doctours I wonder he is not acquainted with the Bull of Leo the tenth beginning Supernae Majestatis In which he lays Excommunication upon all Preachers who in their Sermons do lay forth any such Visions or Revelations before they are approved by the Church because ordinarily they are but Illusions of Melancholy Persons who in their prayer have conceited such dreams and imposed them upon their Directours I pray perswade him to consider how much worse it is to preach such things then to point them in a vulgar Language by which they run amongst the unlearned sort and consider how far he and the divulgers of his Book are from deserving Excommunication Again how many of these Visions in particular have passed the examin and approbation of the Church for which they may not be accompted the dreams of waking men 8. To return now to our former course in his third Paragraph he cites the 63 Canon of the Council of Nice the which though it be known to be none of the Council yet because the custom it speaks of is laudable I except not against it For we doubt not but the multiplication of pryers is ever good St. Paul hath taught us that but the question is onely of the end for which the custom was instituted Yet I may note this that peradventure your Divine is mistaken in the number for we find in the first ages that though there were forty Priests in a Church onely one said Mass upon private days But it is a tedious thing to walk in the dark and to handle a question whereof the Roots are not understood Wherefore I shall to my power lay down the grounds of the question out of which Authorities may be the better understood 9. There are therefore two questions to be display'd the one whereon relys the efficacy of Prayer the second to what it is efficacious First therefore we must note that this word prayer hath two significations In the one it is nothing but the praising of God in the other it signifies the begging something of God Prayer in the first signification chiefly consists in the acts of the Theological vertues By Faith and the qualities consequert to Faith we acknowledg and admire the attributes of God and the perfection of his works so break out into those motions which follow such Acts. By Hope and Charity we love ànd desire God as our proper good whether by his Essence or by and his Creatures Out of this follows that we ask him what we apprehend as necessary to us in which consists that prayer which is properly called Petition Now let us consider God as we would consider a wise man and we shall see that if we beg any thing of a wise man he considers two things one is whether the Petition be convenient for it self which if he finds without difficulty he grants it The other is that though it be not convenient in it self yet he considers whether the friendship of the Person who begs it makes it convenient to be done or no And if he find it does he grants the request So then likewise must we esteem of God that he doth what is beg'd of him because of it self it is fitting to do it even if there had been no prayers At other times it is not good unless it had been begged Further in the Beggar we find two Considerations one of the Person the other of the Begging This later consideration is not considerable before God more then as it makes the Person more acceptable For whosoever begs of God addresses himself to God and by that exercises some vertue for which he comes to be more acceptable But then the begging obtains because of the worth of the Person Abstract from this and begging is but the affection to a created thing and so hath more imperfection then perfection in it unless it be the desire of what is commanded us as when it is said Quaerite Reg num Dei and again siquis indiget sapientia postulet a Deo And it is added in fide nihil haesitans which if I be not mistaken signifies that he shall certainly be heard Of other things we hear Pater vester scit quia his omnibus opus habetis and if we will nevertheless ask them we have the form shaped out to us sed tua volunt as fiat non mea 10. That this explication of Gods hearing our prayers is true depends of the Principles long since explicated that God under forfeit of his Wisdome and Goodness is bound to do what is best for his creatures and nothing else Wherefore what he does is either therefore best because begg'd or of it self therefore on one of these motives to be granted Now if it be best because begged since the title of begging is the favour the Beggar has he must by the act of begging be in greater favour then without it for if it had been convenient otherwise it would have been done without begging and so not for the begging for God needs no Monitor to tell him what and when it is best And so you have the first point clear'd that Charity and onely Charity on the Peggars part is the cause of the effect 11. The other point was what God grants in respect of our prayers That is to what our prayers are efficacious In which the first proposition is that God grants nothing upon our prayers but what first he stirs us up to pray for and ordains our prayers to be causes of the effect the which is both evident of it self and formerly declared The next proposition is that God stirs up no body to pray for any thing unless the action of praying be good to him that prays So that whether the effect be granted or not the good of praying never fails him who prays A third proposition is that all things confider'd no extrinsecal good is the good of the man who prays for it but is absolutely indifferent whether it be the spiritual good of Father and Mother or Children or whatsoever it be and therefore by a perfect soul none of those things is to be absolutely pray'd for or desired but onely under the good will and provideoce of God This is clear also to all those who understand the nature of Good to be respective to him who desires it and that it signifies what according to reason is to be desired by him and that every man is a part of the World and cannot with reason desire the World should be conformable to him and therefore may or must desire his own good because he is made for it and hath that charge from the Authour of nature to procure it and be sollicitous of it But as his Beatitude is but the end of him so the Beatitude

alone knows but it seems rational to think that a very private good cannot exact them but onely such which either singly or in multitude concur to a Publick Good Other circumstances which prayers made by Faith may require to be heard may be supply'd by the subtle twisting of causes by the Divine providence unpenetrable by us which fulfill the desires of weak Persons who with great Faith demand the help of God Howsoever this is the main Principle that God never does such actions but when they are to be known and to govern men by perswasion Out of which it follows That whensoever such Actions have not connatural ways to be known and manifested they ought not to be supposed to be done but that God proceeds according to the course of natural second causes Nor must it be omitted that even in these miraculous Actions God proceeds more according to Nature in general then in the others For this being the main point of Nature to bring Man to Bliss conformably to his nature that is by the way of Perswasion what is most conformable to Perswasion is most conformable to the chief part of Nature that is to Mankind in the greatest effect which is in ordering him immediately to Bliss 7. Hitherto my Principles have been somewhat abstracted yet necessary to be known and taken purely either out of faith or out of evident and confessed natural Truths concerning man's nature The following Principles will be more close to our subject 8. The sixth therefore is that a Sin is an action against Reason that is against the Nature of Man and therefore hurtfull to him first in soul the which it most principally corrupts next in Body both according to his internal faculties and many times also in his external and vegetative qualities Thirdly if it be an external act it prejudices Man-kind that is his Neighbours either in their souls by Scandal and evil Example or also in their Bodies or Fortunes and out of these Considerations the Sinner remains subject to Satisfaction towards himself which consisteth in the reparation of the damages done to himself towards the Church and towards the civil Government As for the damages of his Soul if he repairs them not with penance and good works he goeth thorough the violence of his affection sinfull into the next world and there suffers the sorrows and contradictions which follow distracted affections As for the damages of his inward Bodily powers those breed in him or increase in him either more sinfull actions or at l●ast greater strife betwixt the rational and the material part and if they be not remedied in this world cause the disposition of the parting soul to be worse and imperfecter then it should be and so subject to ill effects in the next world As for the other damages to himself or his Neighbours unless he hath the will to repair them he doth not quit the sin as is manifest in the case of Restitution But if he do what lyes in his power and truly is not negligent they hurt him not in the next world But all Negligence and Tepidity is carry'd into the next World in quality of a sinfull disposition and so accrues to the punishment due to the sin 9. The seventh Principle is that by Gods order all the evils which follow sin either by its proper nature or by the orders of Ecclesiastical and Civil Government are ordained by God to be punishments of that sin and therefore whosoever by way of penance doth prevent the punishments which other ways would fall upon him by this order of God doth plainly extinguish the dueness of the pains as St. Zacchaeus when he payd four double of all that he had wronged any man quitted the score of what he had offended human nature civilly He that did willingly undergo the Penitential Canons or like a Holy Mary Magdalene or Mary the Aegyptian did retire to a voluntary penance did satisfy the Church And those who have perfect Contrition satisfy for all the defects of the soul and her interiour powers in the body I find it is a clear case that he who leaveth nothing due to any of these parties hath satisfy'd for all the pains they can exact of him 10. The eighth Principle is that Gods Justice may be taken either for the vertue of Justice in himself or for the effect it hath in its creatures If it be taken for this later it consists in this that every creature hath that which is fitting to him in respect of its proportion to the rest of the world and its situation and order in it Therefore it is clear that he who satisfies for his sins as it is explicated in the former Principle doth absolutely satisfy Gods Justice in this sence But if you take Gods Justice as Justice signifies a vertue in him then to satisfy Gods Justice adds to the former explication that the satisfaction the man does is that which God by the vertue of Justic● exacts to have done the which because it is that which the repentant sinner has done it is clear that the sinner hath satisfy'd God also in that sence 11. The ninth Principle is that all and every good act done in state of Grace and proceeding from Charity is meritorious that is deserves a reward And the Reward may be the extrinsecal or intrinsecal good of the actour that is either a good to his own Person or to his Friends For who does an act of Charity increases Charity in himself and becometh more Holy then he was before and therefore a greater and better member of Gods Church And because we know that all things as the Apostle teaches be made for the Elect and do cooperate to their good we know that they are more made and do more cooperate to the good of them who are more just and more Saints Hence it comes that God orders by his ordinary Providence for it is not an infallible rule that the friends of the just man fare better because he is Just and and so the just man by being just merits not onely for his own Person hut also for others Again because God doth this in respect of the desire of the just Person whether that desire be actual or onely in preparation of heart this which we call meriting is also obtaining or impetrating And because what is merited or impetrated may be either addition of good or diminution of evils when it is diminution of evils it is called Satisfaction Wherefore the same Action by the same vertue is meritorious impetratory and satisfactory I know some scruple at saying one man can deserve for another taking that to be the property of Christ but I see the Fathers use the word merit freely in this sence and therefore I do not scruple to do the same Wherefore I do not put these three Words to signify three Qualities of the Action but one quality according as it is related to divers Causes or Effects 12. Hitherto you have read