Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	heaven_n	kingdom_n	loose_v	3,837	5	10.6057	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44145	Letters written to J.M. a nonconformist teacher, concerning the gift and forms of prayer The second part. By Matthew Hole, B.D. sometime fellow of Exeter College, Oxon. now vicar of Stoke-gursey in Somersetshire.; Correct copy of some letters written to J.M. a nonconformist teacher, concerning the gift and forms of prayer. Part 2.	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing H2410; ESTC R215281	96,332	185

Laws or Statutes which are Terms that denote and challenge Obedience but by the odious Name of Impositions that is apt to beget a Dislike and Abhorrence of them For though Men are willing to be rul'd and directed yet they hate to be impos'd upon and therefore to weaken the Power of the Magistrate he shall not be term'd a Lawgiver but an Imposer and his Ordinances not Laws but Impositions that by giving them a bad Name you may the better set them aside at pleasure But if that will not do you have another Artifice to escape the Punishments of them and that is by fixing on them the hateful Name of Persecution a Term apt to denote more of Cruelty in the Inflictors than of Guilt in the Sufferers Now to detect the Fallacy and Falshood of these Arts 't will be necessary to consider the Punishments you thus complain of together with the Reason and Authority upon which they are grounded that you may the better discern between just Punishments and unjust Persecution And this I shall do as Matters stand before these Penalties were suspended that all Men may see the Injustice of such Clamours What then are the Punishments annex'd to the Laws that do establish Conformity to the Church Why These are both Ecclesiastical and Civil Of the First sort are the Ecclesiastical Censures of Admonition Suspension Deprivation and Excommunication which are inflicted by the Authority of the Church for the Correction and Amendment of Offenders This is the Power of the Keys committed to the Church by Christ himself whereby he hath given Authority to the Bishops and Pastors of Admitting into and Excluding out of the Church and thereby of opening and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven Which Power or Commission is granted by our Saviour in these Words If he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Matt. xviii 17 18. Now these Punishments being ordain'd and appointed by Christ himself cannot be styl'd Persecution or made any just matter of Complaint when duly inflicted on Offenders But These things say some have been ill manag'd especially Excommunication that great Punishment being made too cheap and common for many have been Excommunicated for Trifles and turn'd out of the Church for what no Man would be turn'd out of Doors But Sir Is Obstinacy and wilful Disobedience to the Church to be reckoned a Trifle And yet this is still the chief if not the only Cause of Excommunication He that hearkens to the Church and submits to the Authority of it is not to be put out of it but he that will not is by our Saviour's Rule to be accounted no better than a heathen man and a Publican Neither doth the Smallness of the thing extenuate but rather aggravate the Fault for the less the Matter of the Command is the greater is the Disobedience he that will disobey in a small thing will sooner do it in a greater And the Reverence of Authority is so tender a Matter and of so great Moment that it must not be despis'd in either For he that heareth you saith Christ heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me Luke x. 16. You know God Almighty punished the whole Race of Mankind for our first Parents tasting the for bidden Fruit which one would think was a small Fault for so great a Punishment and yet considering the Ingratitude the Stubborness and Disobedience involved in it 't was a crying Enormity and justly deserved that Vengeance that was inflicted I shall leave you to apply it and proceed 2dly To the Civil Punishments annexed to the Violation of these Laws and these are so easie and gentle that none have any need to cry out of Persecution or to brand the Magistrate for a Tyrant or Persecutor in inflicting of them For is not Twelve-pence a Sunday a moderate Fine for absenting from the publick Assemblies And nothing but Mens own Wilfulness and Obstinacy can draw upon them the higher Fines or the Penalty of Imprisonment which were thought necessary to awaken and reform some stubborn Offenders Our Laws have no Capital or Sanguinary Punishments in Matters of Religion nor do they allow any to be put to Death or to be cruelly tormented for them but only by moderate Penalties compell them to hear Instruction and to hinder them from propagating their Errors and Divisions to the Disturbance of the Peace of the Church and State And yet you make as loud Outcries and Complaints of Persecution for these things as if with some of the Ancient Martyrs you were to be broke upon the Wheel and with St. Lawrence to be roasted upon the Gridiron But let us see the Difference between Legal Punishments and Persecution these must be carefully distinguished for else the Thief and Murderer and all other Offenders may cry out of Persecution for suffering the just Punishments of their Crimes In Persecution then Two things are to be considered viz. the Cause and the Measure of their Sufferings For to suffer without a Cause and to be punished for the Breach of a Law which neither hath nor can be prov'd is a sort of Persecution and such likewise is that where the Punishment exceeds the Design of the Law or the Demerit of the Crime But the proper Notion of Persecution is to suffer for a good Cause that is for Righteousness sake To be brought before Magistrates and hal'd away to Prisons and Death it self for the Name of Christ and adhereing to his Truth This was the Case of the Apostles and Primitive Christians who were therefore said to be persecuted In this Case our Saviour's Direction was Either to fly where it might be or patiently and chearfully to suffer where it could not so that my mentioning your Removal into Scotland was no worse Advice than Christ gave to his own Apostles that is If they were persecuted in one place to flee to another and if England were such a hot Furnace of Persecution as you represent it 't was no bad Counsel to move into the more Northern and cooler Regions of Scotland where the Temper of the Air and the Religion of the Climate may be the more agreeable with the due Temper of Dissenters But this by the by 'T is the Cause then and not the Suffering that makes the Martyr In like manner 't is not the undergoing of Punishment but the suffering for Christ and for Righteousness sake that makes the Persecution For what glory is it saith St. Peter if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. ii 20. Now the Sufferings you complain of are neither for Christ nor for Righteousness sake for you may be as Righteous and serve Christ as

beyond all Contradiction And that Christ himself who was the great Light of the World taught his Disciples a Form is too plain in sacred Writ to be called in Question And was this done think you to keep Men in Darkness or to help them out of it If we go on to the following Ages When were there greater Lights set up in the Christian Church than in the Days of St. Cyprian St. Chrysostom St. Basil St. Ambrose St. Austin c. And yet all these were either Composers of Liturgies themselves for the use of their several Churches or Approvers and Users of such as were composed by others And will you reckon the pious Composures of these great Lights among the Works of Darkness To come down to the Times of the Reformation When did there appear greater Lights in the Horizon of the English Church than Cranmer and Ridley and the other Compilers of our Liturgy And what admirable Wisdom Piety and Moderation have they shewed in the compiling of it which make it a Work little less than Divine and next to the Inspired Writings hath nothing extant in the Christian World to exceed or equal it And is it expedient think you that this should give place to the present and hasty Conceptions of every empty Brain But 2. Secondly You limit the Expediency of Forms not only by the difference of Times but by the difference of Mens Abilities And this you are so full of that you vent it almost in every Letter frequently vaunting of yours and some others mighty Talent and great Abilities of expressing themselves fitly to God in Prayer without Forms But Sir were not those eminent and learned Persons before-mentioned who compos'd and us'd Forms of Prayer Men of far greater Parts and Abilities than such as now vainly pretend to be above them Can every conceited Holder-forth think you pray better than St. Cyprian St. Chrysostom and other Ancient Fathers who were famed for their Eloquence and great Abilities and yet thought fit to use Forms in their publick Ministrations Yea do not the most able and learned Men in the present as well as former Ages celebrate the publick Worship by Forms whose Abilities are well known to be much greater than theirs who think they have no need of them Besides Sir 't is a Mistake to think that any such great Abilities are requisite to this extempore way of praying A great deal of Confidence with very slender Abilities is sufficient to do the Feat Your self tell me in your 2d Letter that you know a great many who have this Gift of expressing themselves fluently this way that have no Gift of Elocution or Readiness of Speech upon any other Occasion The Truth is Extempore-Prayer when 't is best and most dextrously perform'd requires no more than a heated Fancy a bold Front and a voluble Tongue and therefore an ingenious Author hath told us That it deserves much the same Commendation that is due to Extempore-Verses only with this difference that there is necessary to these latter a competent Measure of Wit and Learning whereas the former may be done with very little Wit and no Learning at all So that the Expediency of Forms of Prayer which you own in the general is but little weakned by your unwarrantable Restrictions For if they were found expedient in Times of greatest Light and if Men of the greatest Parts and Abilities have thought it fit and necessary to use them certainly such as only talk of great Light and are vainly conceited of much less Abilities must have the greatest need of them But let us see upon what this Expediency of Forms of Prayer is grounded and that may help us to see more clearly into the Weakness and Vanity of the aforesaid Limitations And 1st the wise Man founds it on the distance that is between God and us willing us Not to be rash with our mouth or hasty to utter any thing before God because he is in Heaven and we upon Earth Eccles v. 2. shewing that the Reverence we owe to our Maker arising from the Sense of our Infinite distance from him forbids us to bespeak him in a hasty loose and careless manner Now this will serve for all Times and Persons none being ever allowed to vent any thing rashly or hastily before him 2dly The utter Inability of the best of us to perform the Duty of Prayer so well by present and sudden Conceptions as by well consider'd and digested Forms is another ground of the Expediency of them and this makes it necessary for all Persons in all Times and Occasions The Disciples of Christ were sensible of this and therefore begg'd our Saviour to teach them to pray Who thereupon assisted them with a Form And of this the many Indecencies and Imperfections of those that practise otherwise may abundantly convince us 3dly Thirdly Your great Friend and Father Mr. John Calvin hath laid down the Expediency of Forms of Prayer and other Ecclesiastical Rites upon such firm Grounds as will last to all Ages and shew the perpetual Use and Necessity of them For in his Epistle to the Lord Protector Calvin's Epist 87. he amply declares his Approbation of them and would have them so determined that it might not be lawful for Ministers in their Administrations to vary from them and that for these Reasons partly to be a help to the Weakness of some who cannot well perform their Duty without them partly to put a stop to the desultorious Levity of others who affect too much New things and partly likewise to be a Testimony of the Church's Consent in Doctrine and Worship to future Ages Now all or some of these things will make Forms of Prayer necessary and expedient at All Times and for All Persons And consequently the Expediency of them may be asserted and established without your frivolous and groundless Limitations And thus having shewn how far we are agreed about the Lawfulness and Expediency of Forms of Prayer and likewise having endeavoured to remove the little Exceptions which are wont to cereate some small difference in both my next Business must be to consider what you offer against the Injunction of them for publick Worship In the mean time I am SIR Yours M. H. August 12th 1697. LETTER IV. SIR WE have seen how far we are agreed about the Lawfulness and Expediency of Forms of Prayer In both which the difference between us when well consider'd is found so small that an honest and humble Mind may easily yield it to the Wisdom and Authority of Superiours for the sake of Peace And that you may be the better perswaded to this let us go on to consider what is further said concerning the Injunction of Forms to see how we accord here that we may the better remove the Mistakes and Differences that have been raised about it And here you tell me more than once in your Letter of June the 28th that you are not against all imposing of Forms upon some