Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	receive_v	tradition_n	2,537	5	8.9791	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76542	The mystery of phanaticism. Or, The artifices of dissenters to support their schism· Together with the evil and danger of them. Set forth in several letters to a friend. Wherein is made appear, that nothing but the subtilty and cunning of their teachers, doth now hinder the people from conformity. By a divine of the Church of England.	A. B.; Taylor, William, fl. 1698.	1698 (1698)	Wing B23A; ESTC R208943	49,991	144

Worship of God or their not being tied up to any other Rules in these things but such as they in their great Wisdom shall think fit hence they persuade the People that to prescribe any thing in the Worship of God which he himself hath not Commanded is an invasion of his Prerogative and an infringement of Christian Liberty But hath God any where prescribed the particular Times Places Habits Gestures and other Circumstances of Divine Worship Hath he given any other than some general Rules for the more Decent and Orderly performance hereof No 't is certain he hath not why then the particular Determination of these Circumstances wherein this Decency and Order consists must be left to that Power which Christ hath set up in his Church For to leave every one to his own Liberty in these things is a Principle of Confusion and must bring all manner of Indecency and Disorder into the Service of God How then comes this to be called Christian Liberty Hath Christ any where Commanded or Allowed any such Liberty in his Chuch or exempted Christians from Obedience to Authority in such Lawful and Indifferent things No he hath given both his Precept and Example to the contrary for he was not only Obedient to the Roman Power in all Lawful things but paid all due Reverence and Obedience to the Authority of the Jewish Church he strictly observed the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Service as well those of Human as Divine Appointment he kept to the Gesture used in Eating the Passover Matth. 26.20 and punctually Conformed to all the Ceremonies of the Synagogue-Worship So that 't is prevaricating with God as well as deceiving the People to tell them that Christ hath dispensed with all Laws made for the external Order and Decency of Publick Worship and given them a Liberty to behave themselves in it as they please But does not the Apostle tell us of a liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free willing us to stand fast in it and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage Gal. 5.1 Yes but that was a Liberty from the numerous and burthensome Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law which for the number and uneasiness of them are by St. Peter justly stiled a Yoke and such a one too as neither they nor their forefathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 for their Temples daily flow'd with the Blood of their Flocks and Herds their Altars smoak'd with the most costly Incense and Perfumes in a word they were prescribed to almost in all the Punctilio's of Human Life and few or no things were left indifferent to them Now these things being for the most part Typical and only shadows of good things to come were all to be done away when the Substance came accordingly at Christ's Coming all these Shadows vanished like darkness at the approach of the Sun and the cloudy Types of the Law were dispelled by the Brightness of his Coming Now a freedom from those cumbersom Rites and Ceremonies of the Old Law is the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and to return to the Observance of them is to be entangled again in the yoke of Bondage But what is this to Governors applying the general Rules of Scripture about the Order and Decency of God's Worship to particular Laws about it Here the Ceremonies enjoined are not Typical as the Jewish were nor is the observing of them a virtual denying that Christ is come in the Flesh as the continuance of the Jewish Rites would be but are Appointed only for the more comely Worshipping of God manifest in the flesh and the more solemn Praifing of God the Father for that inestimable Blessing To observe such wholesome Orders made for this end is so far from infringing our Christian Liberty that it would be a great Infringement of it to do otherwise For First This would infringe the Liberty that Christ hath left with Governours of Ordering such Indifferent things this is the main if not the only Branch of their Ecclesiastical Power for the Substantials of Divine Worship are already Appointed by Christ and the Spirit of God hath left some general Rules for the more orderly Performance of it but the particular Rules of Order and Decency being no where Prescribed these are left to the determination of our Governors whom we are required to obey for the Lord's sake and to deny them this is to divest them of all Power in Church-matters yea this will leave a less Liberty to Ecclesiastical Governors under the Gospel than the Governors of the Jewish Church were invested with who yet were bound up and determined in far more particulars than ours now are Again To take off our Obedience in these Indifferent things is to infringe the Liberty of the People who must be thereby deprived of a better way of serving God and likewise subject them to the Punishment and Displeasure of the Magistrate for Disobeying him in things that are within his Power to Command But wherein then lies our Christian Liberty if Governors may Impose what they think fit upon us Why the Governors Liberty consists in this That they are not tied up to any particular Modes or Circumstances of Divine Worship but may establish in Indifferent things what they judge most expedient for Order and Comeliness The Peoples Liberty lies in this That they do not look upon or use the things contained in such Injunctions as Essential Parts of Divine Worship or Matters necessary to Salvation but merely for Discipline and Orders sake they retain still the Liberty of the Judgment about the Nature of the things though the Use of them be for wise and publick Reasons restrain'd Whereas such a Liberty as sets Men free from all Laws and good Orders of this kind is a wild and extravagant Fancy and lets them loose to all Disorder this is to use our Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness and to make it a Pretence or Covering for all Licentiousness But what is the Design of this false Pretence to Christian Liberty Why 't is to give the People Liberty to break the Laws at Pleasure and leave them to the Guidance of their own Humours without Controul by this means they teach them to leave the Church and go to Conventicles to assert their Christian Liberty and to encourage them therein they pervert for them two or three Texts of Scripture as that of our Saviour Call no man master upon earth Matth. 23.10 which is a Caution against receiving the corrupt Doctrines and Traditions of the Pharisees is by them Interpreted for rejecting the Lawful Commands of our Superiors That of the Apostle Be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 which forbids the enslaving the Conscience to the Imperious Dictates of False Teachers is so expounded as to take off all the Obligation of good Orders St. Peter's Lording it over God's heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 they interpret of the Tyranny of the Bishops and thereby take off their

and Spirit than other Mens For that is all the Praying by the Spirit since the ceasing of Inspiration And who will presume to judge of that Yea Is not the Heart more hinder'd and call'd off in their Prayers by the Invention of Matter and Words than in others where both these are prepared to their hands I hope they do not pretend to Pray by the immediate dictates and suggestions of the Holy Ghost as the Apostles did if they do they must work a Miracle that we may believe them and then we shall reckon all their Prayers of as great Authority as the Holy Scripture if they cannot they must excuse us if we condemn their depending upon such divine and sudden Suggestions of great Rashness and Presumption and that theirs is so far from a more Spiritual way of Worship that 't is rather more Carnal and scarce deserves the name of Divine Worship And yet here lies the great mystery of this Artifice for these Men take Praying Extempore or by present Conceptions to be Praying by the Spirit and so call it a Spiritual way of Worship whereas Praying by a Form is stil'd stinting of the Spirit and so that must not be allow'd to be Spiritual but Formal Worship and by this device they set the Ears of the People a itching after the one and turn them away or make them deaf to the other Now this Falacy may be easily apparent to any that considers that some of the vilest Wretches and greatest Monsters of Impiety that ever liv'd have been most famous for this talent of Extempore Prayer We read of one actually in League with the Devil Vid. Raviliac Rodivivu Major Were who had such a Fluency this way that he was admir'd by all but could be imitated by none that came near him And will any ascribe the Prayers of such a Wretch made up of Sorceries and the vilest Abominations to the Spirit of God Are they not rather the Diabolical suggestions of the Evil Spirit and to be ascribed to the true Author the Devil who is the Father of all Lies and Impostures And certainly he that considers what bad things have been vented in such Prayers will plainly see it to be not only a Belying but Blaspheming the Holy Ghost to entitle them to Him But 't is time to shew the evil and danger of this device And First This pretence of Purer Ordinances and purer Worship hath prov'd a principle of great Instability and Giddiness in Religion for when some Men began to refine upon the Established Church and set up Purer Ordinances Have not others risen up who thought them not pure enough and refin'd again upon them yea Does not one Sect continue still refining upon another and God knows when and where it will end Have not these double and treble Refiners almost refin'd away all their Religion and left little more than the Name and pretence of it Is it not dwindled into Air and Speculation and almost lost in a crowd of endless scruples and disputes How little of the life and spirit of Religion appears in Mens lives and how few can shew their Faith by their Works Which are the sad effects of this Reforming and Refining Humour Again This hath made the generality of People despise all Godly Forms though far more conducing to the purity of Faith and Devotion than other newfangled Methods for a Form of sound Words may preserve soundness in the matter of our Prayers and prevent indecencies in the manner of them whereas Extemporary Effusions can do neither for there much unsound Matter and many unseemly Expressions may and do frequently drop from those that use them Moreover many ignorant and wicked Persons who have been eminent for this Spiritual way of Praying have encouraged themselves in their Wickedness upon the account of this Gift and too many still flatter themselves on the same account that they are the Children of God and endow'd with his Spirit notwithstanding all their Wickedness Others again for lack of this Gift have been apt to despond as if they wanted that which should chiefly recommend them unto God And both of them have thereby grievously deceived both themselves and others Besides This pretence of greater Purity naturally leads to Schism and Separation for he that offers a Purer Model shall be sure to draw Disciples after him and many Men being too much given to change are apt to hearken to any higher offers and degrees of Purity there are some who dream of Purity and Perfection here in this life and these will easily listen to any tenders and advances towards it This will cause them to divide and separate from others vainly thinking themselves advanc'd to a higher Form in Christ's School and to have attain'd to greater measures of Perfection which naturally leads not only to Separating but Vilifying one another for they that take themselves to be of a higher Class will scorn to join or converse with those of a lower Form and as others swell in their thoughts and conceits above them so will they make them too the object of their contempt and scorn hence we find the Presbyterians who had declaim'd against the Church for making an Idol of the Common-Prayer were by the Independents and other Sectaries told That they made a greater and worse Idol of their Covenant and they who had stil'd the Liturgy and Episcopacy the Calves of Dan and Bethel found after the Directory and Presbytery branded with the same names and they too accounted the greatest Calves that most admired them Thus you see to what pass declaiming against publick Order and pretending to purer Ordinances may bring matters to which cannot but give great disturbance to any Church or Kingdom whereas the Wisdom that is from above is not only pure but peaceable gentle easy to be intreated free from pride full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisy James 3.17 18. If you will bring the pretences of Dissenters to this Test 't is to be feared Mene Tekel may be written on them they are weigh'd in the balance and found wanting in all these things I am Yours A. B. LETTER V. SIR I Find you sensible in your last of the great mischief of some Mens pretences to greater Purity and a more Spiritual way of Worship and what great advantage they have given to Sectaries to multiply and increase their Parties I shall proceed therefore to a Fourth Artifice made use of to that purpose and that is to cry up Peace and Unity though their Actions tend all the while to destroy and undermine them They know the Holy Scriptures abound every where with Precepts and Exhortations to Peace and Unity and what pressing Arguments and motives are made use of to that end The First things proclaim'd to the World upon our Blessed Saviour's coming into it next to the glory of God were peace on earth and good will towards men The whole course of his Life and Doctrine whilst he continued in it