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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	4,717	5	6.8021	4	true

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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

means ordained for their own preservation CHAP. IX THat I may now draw to a conclusion of this Discourse I think I may justly infer from the whole these three Propositions the exemplifying of which I shall be as brief in as I may at least as short as may comport with the bad times in which we live 1. That the Prayers and Service of our own Church The Church of England Established by the known Laws of the Land are composed and performed in such a manner that God will accept them 2. That the Church of Rome offend him with theirs and is most irrationally and abominably peccant in their devotions And 3. That they who live amongst us and yet strangely separate from us under the shelter and pretence of greater Reformation and a more pure Evangelical Worship do not perform their services unto God in such a manner as is suitable to his Attributes and Worship mans dependance and that infinite distance betwixt their Creator and themselves And so upon the whole it must appear to be an unreasonable service First it may be plainly infer'd That the Church of England embodied with the State allowed and strengthned by civil Sanctions worships God in such a manner as he accepts and offers him such a Spiritual Sacrifice with which he is well pleased that can no way be frustrated of its excellent design but by a neglect in the devotionists or the bad lives of those who pretend thus to worship This will appear though not only from that which our Adversaries are pleased sometimes to call a Club Argument because it is Established by a Royal Christian Assent in Parliament And yet this as it makes for the interest of those who contend with us becomes Sacred though at other times when the advice of Parliaments with their own consent is by the King pass'd into a Law if it contra●icts either their Principles or their Humour and 't is difficult to guess which is the Commander it shall be judged hard or sanguinary or not agreeing with that liberty in which Christ has made us free and a Text uttered at first upon a very far different account shall be as frequently urged as it has been answered We ought to obey God rather than men So that such persons are extremely for Government according to Law when this allows or indulges their Principles and their Practice but conclude it to be unequal and unjust when the same Laws condemn and punish them and they seem to be like a noble Traytor accused and now going to his Trial who walks in state and seemingly with an unconcerned mind nay many times with joy and briskness in his countenance when the back of the Ax is turned towards him but when as he comes back again the edge of the fatal instrument of death looks upon him his face is demure he treads the earth with trembling steps and wishes there had been no Law to condemn him and if he has any sprightliness in his looks his end is only by this significant ceremony to persuade the people that he remains innocent and that the Law is hard by which he is condemned though perhaps before when it served his turn and promotion too nothing was like Government according to Law But to leave this Argument because it may grieve some persons whose principles and zeal are managed suitable to their Secular interest although I fear it must be the effectual reason at last to convince them Let us enquire whether the Prayers and Worship of the Church of England are not to be justified another way This being a publick Worship of Christians Embodied and Constituting the Sacred Society of a Church who with unity of hearts and a suitable uniformity meet together in a place devoted to the service of God and separated from vulgar and profane uses the prayers and service must be allowed by reasonable persons to be such as it ought to be uttered in such general expressions as all may be able to consent unto and say Amen at the close and period And where confessions prayers and thanksgivings are more precisely and particularly managed and he who is the mouth of the Congregation invents his own unallowed prayers and pretends to utter the concernments of all though some may be able to joyn in one part and some in another yet 't is very seldom that any one can consent to all and all perhaps had they time to consider could not give their assent to one period besides those that tell God his own or some general things which are usually declared before he comes to what are called soul searching particulars I have heard of a Quaker who vouchsafing to hear one that was not of his own perswasion and finding that the man who pray'd extempore had laid a great heap of Confessions before him and had been very curious in sorting sins into their several kinds and degrees and uttering all in the name of the Congregation he presently as if he had been used to chop Logick makes his inference in this Dilemma Either this man tells lies or this people are very wicked and resolved to have no more to do with them But another perhaps more severe than he may think his conclusion very reasonable when he supposes and infers that the man prays from his own experience and from his particular defects attributes the same to all mankind and causes a multitude to be partakers of his private sins to petition what he only wants and to give thanks for the benefits which he has received And perhaps upon the consideration of all the mouth of the people may at last be thought the worst member among them all whatever his headship may yet signifie But not to confound Closets with Churches nor yet to grant that a single man can hold a great Congregation in his belly Let us take a prospect of our own Church and see whether we can justifie that without finding faults in others In this we offer up to God all those desires of our minds that are fit for men embodied into a Christian Society and who are partakers of the same Communion We confess the general heads of sin of which all being guilty they can from a short reflection upon themselves truly acknowledge that they have been sharers in And if it should be rendered more particular some only might be guilty and so there would be a Schism in our acknowledgements because all could not give their assent without telling a lie to their Maker and supposing themselves more vile than they are And moreover this way of publick Worship would expose all the professors of Christianity to the contempt of those that are enemies to Religion at least adversaries to that of the Gospel We have also in the Service which the Church of England owns upon our Confession Gods free pardon declared to us in that manner as Christ himself has appointed in his Gospel without such an Auricular confession as may give us Knowledge of the

of the mischievousness and sinfulness of Schism lib. 5. Cap. 21. Schism saies he is a grievous sin 1. Because it is against Charity to our Neighbour 2. B cause it is against the Edification of him who makes the Separation in that he deprives himself of Communion in Spiritual good 3. Because it is against the honor of Christ in that as much as in it lyeth it takes away the Unity of his Mystical Body And 4. It makes way to Heresie and separation from Christ from whence they conclude that Schism is a sin by all good men to be abhor'd Nay if we look into Pag. 112. we shall find that when men separate from what they acknowledge to be a true Church 'T is Schism And to set up a Church against a Church and as the Ancients call'd it Altar against Altar This is the weakning the hands of the Church hindering the glorious work of Reformation causing the building of Gods House to cease and is a Deformation instead of a Reformation Upon such a dismal state and farther prospect of worse times if any could be so within less than a year after the Throne followed the downfal of the Episcopal Church of England these London Ministers gathered together in a Provincial Assembly thus exhort the people Pag. 110. After their being humbled for the evils that so much abounded for which as they say even those in their daies of Reformation the Earth mourned and the Heavens were black over them when they had mourned seriously every one a part Their desire and advice to them is this That you would put away the iniquity that is in your hand That you would be tender of the Oaths which you have taken and those which may be offered to you That you would prize the Publick Ordinances and reverence your Ministers That you would sanctifie the Sabbaths and hate Hypocrisie and self-seeking That you would receive the love of the truth lest God give you over to believe lies That you would not trust to your own understanding lest God blind your understanding That you would conform to the truths you already know that God may discover to you the truths ye do not know That ye would not have such itching ears as to heap to your selves Teachers nor embrace any Doctrines for the persons sake That ye would seek the truth for the truths sake and not for any outward respect That ye would study Catechism more diligently by degrees be led on to perfection And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity These were the excellent exhortations of a Province of Divines then separated from the Episcopal Church of England And why should not such admirable instructions and advice be prevalent in this paper since they are transcribed from their own To conclude therefore in the language of this Provincial Assembly If we are a true Church of Christ which the late Doctrine of occasional Communion sufficiently proves and Christ holdeth Communion with us why do any separate from us If we are the Body of Christ do not they who separate from the Body separate from the Head also If the Apostle calls those divisions in the Church of Corinth by the name of Schisms 1 Cor. 1.10 Though Christians there did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper May not your Secession from us and the profession that you cannot join with us as members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schisms Especially when Churches were gathered out of Churches as this Provincial Assembly there complains If any are willing to see more of this let them peruse the Book And the good God give us all a right understanding in all things FINIS