Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	age_n	church_n	scripture_n	2,324	5	6.0450	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95514	Two discourses 1. of baptisme, its institution, and efficacy upon all believers. 2. Of prayer ex tempore, or by pretence of the spirit. / By Jer: Taylor D.D.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1652 (1652)	Wing T414; Thomason E683_15; ESTC R203749	24,698	32

in the green tree what will be done in the dry Numb 65 But if it be said the ex tempore and conceived prayers will be secured from errour by the Directory because that chalks them out the matter I answer it is not sufficient because if when men study both the matter and the words too they may be and it is pretended are actually erroneous much more may they when the matter is lest much more at liberty and the words under no restraint at all And no man can avoid the pressure and the weight of this unlesse the Compilers of the Directory were infallible and that all their followers were so too of the certainty of which I am not yet sully satisfied Numb 66 And after all this I would fain know what benefit and advantages shall the Church of England in her united capacity and every particular in the diffused capacity receive by this new device For the publike it is cleare that whether the Ministers pray before they study or study before they pray there must needs be infinite deformity in the publike worship and all the benefits which were before the consequents of conformity and unity will be loft and if they be not valuable I leave it to all them to consider who know the inconveniences of publike disunion and the publike disunion that is certainly consequent to them who doe not communicate in any common formes of worship And to think that the Directory will bring conformity is as if one should say that all who are under the same Hemisphere are joyned in communi patriá and will love like Countrymen for under the Directory there will be as different Religions and as different desires and as differing formes as there are severall varieties of men and manners under the one halfe of heaven who yet breath under the same halfe of the Globe But I ask again what benefit can the publike receive by this forme or this no form for I know not whether to call it Shall the matter of prayers be better in all Churches shall God be better served shall the word of God and the best patterns of prayers be alwayes exactly followed It is well if it be But there is security given us by the Directory for the matter is left at every mans dispose for all that and we must depend upon the honesty of every particular for it and if any man proves a Heretick or a Knave then he may introduce what impiety he please into the publick formes of Gods worship and there is no law made to prevent it and it must be cured afterwards if it can but before-hand it is not prevented at all by the Directory which trusts every man But I observe that all the benefit which is pretended is that it will make an able Ministery which I confesse I am very much from believing and so will every man be that considers what kind of men they are that have been most zealous for that way of conceived prayer I am sure that very few of the learnedst very many ignorants most those who have made least abode in the Schools of the Prophets And that I may disgrace no mans person we see Tradesmen of the most illiberall arts and women pretend to it and doe it with as many words and that 's the maine thing with as much confidence and speciousnesse and spirit as the best among them And it is but a small portion of learning that will serve a man to make conceived formes of prayer which they have easily upon the stock of other men or upon their own fancie or upon any thing in which no learning is required He that knowes nothing of the craft may be in the Preachers trade But what Is God better served I would faine see any Authority or any reason or any probability for that I am sure ignorant men offer him none of the best sacrifices ex tempore and learned men will be sure to deliberate and know God is then better served when he served by a publike then when by a private spirit I cannot imagine what accruements will hence come to the publike it may be some advantages may be to the private interests of men For there are a sort of men whom out blessed Saviour noted who do devoure widowes houses and for a pretenc● make long prayers They make prayers and they make them long by this meanes they receive double advantages for they get reputation to their ability and to their piety And although the Common-prayer Book in the Preface to the Directory bee charged with unnecessary length yet we see that most of these men they that are most eminent or would be so make their prayers longer and will not lose the benefits which their credit gets and they by their credit for making their prayers Adde to this that there is no promise in Scripture that he who prayes ex tempore shall be heard the better or that he shall bee assisted at all to such purposes and therefore to innovate in so high a matter without a warrant to command us or a promise to warrant us is no better then vanity in the thing and presumption in the person He therefore that considers that this way of prayer is without all manner of precedent in the Primitive Church against the example of all famous Churches in all Christendome in the whole descent of 15. Ages without all command and warrant of Scripture that it is unreasonable in the nature of the thing against prudence and the best wisedome of humanity because it is without deliberation that it is innovation in a high degree without that Authority which is truly and by inherent and ancient right to command and prescribe to us in externall forms of worship that it is much to the disgrace of the first reformers of our Religion that it gives encouragement to the Papists to quarrell with some reason and more pretence against our Reformation as being by the Directory confessed to have been done in much blindnesse and therefore might erre in the excesse as well as in the defect in the throwing out too much as casting off too little which is the more likely because they wanted zeale to carry it farre enough He that confiders the universall deformity of publike worship and the no meanes of union no Symbol of publike communion being publikely consigned that all Heresies may with the same Authority bee brought into our prayers and offered to God in behalfe of the people with the same Authority that any truth may all the matter of our prayers being left to the choyce of all men of all perswasions and then observes that actually there are in many places heresie and blasphemy and impertinency and illiterate rudenesses put into the devotions of the most Solemne dayes and the most publike meetings and then lastly that there are divers parts of Lyturgy for which no provisions at all is made in the Directory and the very administration of the Sacraments left so loosely that if there be any thing essentiall in the forms of Sacraments the Sacrament may come ineffectuall by want of due words and due ministration I say he that considers all these things and many more he may consider will finde that particular men are not fit to be intrusted to offer in publike with their private spirit to God for the people in such solemnities in matters of so great concernment where the honour of God the benefit of the people the interest of Kingdomes the being of a Church the unity of minds the conformity of practice the truth of perswasions and the salvation of soules are so very much concerned as they are in the publike prayers of a whole Nationall Church An unlearned man is not to be trusted and a wise man dare not trust himselfe hee that is ignorant cannot he that is knowing will not The End

Church for ever Or will it be denyed but that they also are excellent directories and patterns for prayer And if patterns the nearer we draw to our example are not the imitations and representments the better And what then if we took the samplers themselves is there any imperfection in them and can we mend them and correct Magnificat Numb 35 In a just porportion and commensuration I argue so concerning the primitive and ancient forms of Church service which are composed according to those so excellent patterns which if they had remained pure as in their first institution or had alwayes been as they have been reformed by the Church of England they would against all defiance put in for the next place to those formes or Liturgy which Mutatis mutandis are nothing but the Words of Scripture But I am resolved at this present not to enter into Question concerning the matter of prayers But for the forme this I say further Numb 36 4. That the Church of God hath the promise of the spirit made to her in generall to her in her Catholick and united capacity to the whole Church first then to particular Churches then in the lowest seat of the Category to single persons Now then I infer if any single persons will have us to believe without all possibility of proofe for so it must be that they pray with the Spirit for how shall they be able to prove the spirit actually to abide in those single persons then much rather must we believe it of the Church which by how much the more generall it is so much the more of the spirit she is likely to have and then if there be no errours in the matter the Church hath the advantage and probability on her side and if there be an errour in matter in either of them they faile of their pretences neither of them have the spirit But the publick spirit in all reason is to be trusted before the private when there is a contestation the Church being Prior potior in promissis she hath a greater and prior title to the spirit And why the Church hath not the spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her children I desire once for all to be satisfied upon true grounds either of reason or revelation Numb 37 5. Or if the Church shall be admitted to have the gift and the spirit of prayer given unto her by virtue of the great promise of the spirit to abide with her for ever yet for all this she is taught to pray in a set form of prayer and yet by the spirit too For what think we When Christ taught us to pray in that incomparable modell the Lords Prayer if we pray that prayer devoutly and with pious and actuall intention doe we not pray in the Spirit of Christ as much as if we prayed any other form of words pretended to be taught us by the Spirit Wee are sure that Christ and Christs Spirit taught us this Prayer they only gather by conjectures and opinions that in their ex tempore forms the spirit of Christ teaches them So much then as certainties are better then uncertaines and God above man so much is this set form besides the infinite advantages in the matter better then their ex tempore forms in the form it selfe Numb 38 6. If I should descend to minutes and particulars I could instance in the behalfe of set forms that God prescribed to Moses a set form of prayer and benediction to be used when he did blesse the people 7. That Moses composed a song or hymne for the children of Israel to use to all their generations 8. That David composed many for the service of the tabernacle 9. That Solomon and the holy Kings of Judah brought them in and continued them in the ministration of the temple 10. That all Scripture is written for our learning and since all these and many more set forms of prayer are left there upon record it is more then probable that they were left there for our use and devotion 11. That S. John Baptist taught his Disciples a forme of prayer 12. And that Christs Disciples begged the same favour and it was granted as they desired it 13. And that Christ gave it not only in massâ materiae but in forma verborum not in a confused heap of matter but in an exact composure of words it makes it evident he intended it not only pro regula petendorum for a direction of what things we are to ask but also pro forma orationis for a set form of Prayer In which also I am most certainly confirmed besides the universall testimony of Gods Church so attesting it in the precept which Christ added When ye pray pray after this manner and indeed it points not the matter only of our prayers but the form of it the manner and the matter of the addresse both But in the repetition of it by Saint Luke the preceptive words seeme to limit us and direct us to this very form of words When ye pray say Our Father c. 14. I could also adde the example of all the Jewes and by consequence of our blessed Saviour who sung a great part of Davids Psalter in their feast of Passeover which part is called by the Iewes the great Hallelujah it begins at the 113 Psalm and ends at the 118 inclusively And the Scripture mentions it as part of our blessed Saviours devotion and of his Disciples that they sung a Psalme 15. That this afterward became a Precept Evangelicall that we should praise God in Hymnes Psalmes and spirituall Songs which is a form of Liturgy in which we sing with the spirit but yet cannot make our Hymnes ex tempore it would be wild stuffe if we should goe about it 16. And lastly that a set form of worship and addresse to God was recorded by Saint John Apoc. 15. and sung in heaven and it was composed out of the songs of Moses Exod. 15. of David Psal 145. and of Jeremy Chap. 10.6 7. which certainly is a very good precedent for us to imitate although but revealed to Saint John by way of vision and extasie All which and many more are to me as so many Arguments of the use excellency and necessity of set forms of Prayer for publick Liturgies and of greatest conveniencie even for private devotions Numb 39 17. And so the Church of God in all Ages did understand it I shall not multiply Authorities to this purpose for they are too many and various but shall only observe two great instances of their beliefe and practise in this particular 1. The one is the perpetuall use and great Eulogies of the Lords Prayer assisted by the many Commentaries of the Fathers upon it 2. The other is that solemn form of benediction and mysticall prayer as Saint Augustine calls it Lib. 3. de Trinit c. 4. which all Churches and themselves said it was by Ordinance Apostolicall used in the