Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	appoint_v	prayer_n	read_v	1,714	5	7.0807	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64582	Parish-churches no conventicles from the minister's reading in the desk when there is no communion : for the vindication of the practice of parochial ministers : in answer to a late pamphlet, stil'd, Parish-churches turn'd into conventicles, pretended to be written by Rich. Hart, but really penn'd by Mr. T.A. Barister at law, shewing how he hath defamed the Church of England, contrary to Canon XI, of those 1603 / by O.V. in a letter to his friend, N.D. ...	O. U.	1683 (1683)	Wing U1; ESTC R5198	18,321	42

the Canon of the Mass of the Body of Jesus which it may be this Gentleman was much taken with when a profest Papist But our Rubrick is not for the Priest's muttering and unnecessary walking but expresly requires that he should read distinctly with an audible Voice so standing and turning himself as he may be best heard of all such as are present And in a Book of some Canons of English Discipline de AEdit Eccles it is ordered That if a Rector Vicar or Curate in his Officiating behaves himself otherwise than as becomes one of his Order by reading confusedly as well as by living loosly he shall be presented 2. These Ministers have by the Rubrick some Things left to their Discretion So that tho they are not to decide some Things about which there may be doubting which the Law and Canons empower the Metropolitans and Diocesans to determine yet they are obliged to use their best Understandings in the Things of God's Solemn Worship and therefore have a power of discerning which they are highly concerned to exercise by comparing one Rubrick with another that they may discharge their Duty most acceptably As for Instance When in one Rubrick we have Te Deum shall be said throughout the Year in the next Rubrick t is said Or this Canticle Benedicite 'T is not said both on the same Day but taking the Rubricks conjunctly one that exerciseth his Mind to discern would understand the meaning of the Law givers to be disjunctive for the same Day i. e. either one or the other and not Te Deum every Day for then would be no room any day for Benedicite unless the Minister should without Prescript lengthen the Service with that Canticle and make the disjunctive Particle or in the Rubrick to be of no import but as if it did signify and and then why not every Day as well as any Day In these therefore as in other Rubricks the Legislators had reference to the Minister's Discretion for the doing and executing the Things contained in the Book appointing a resort to the Bishop of the Diocess in case Parties take any Thing diversly which may occasion doubting So that the Bishop not disallowing what is done we ought in such a diversity of Acceptation charitably to conclude that the Minister doth duly officiate As in the Rubrick about the Offertory it is reserved to the Priest's Discretion to say one or more of the following Sentences as he thinks most convenient So that he that saith but one doth what the Law requires And yet in the very next Rubrick 't is said Whilst these Sentences are in reading which being Plural signifies more than one and in strictness agrees not with one which is Singular and therefore there is somewhat to be understood for Concord sake Which may intimate that the Legislators had more regard to the Duty than to the Place of it and had more respect to the Discretion of the Priest than this Localist hath he labouring more for the Circumstance of Place to gratify his own Humour than the Intention of the Thing to edify the Congregation Being a Zealot not according to Knowledg zealous to have those who officiate contrary to St. Paul 2 Cor. 3. 6. Ministers of the Letter rather than the Spirit weak not able Ministers of the New-Testament Hereupon it may be noted that the Parochial Minister on a Non-Sacrament-Day is supposed to be found in the Desk when Part of the Communion-Service is assigned to him by the Rubrick which may cross this Gentleman's Frontispiece wherein he would make the Congregation a Conventicle if any part thereof be read in the Desk yet just before the reading of the Epistle the Collect of the Day is ordered to be read 't is not said both in the Desk and at the Table without any direction that the Priest should leave the Desk and go up to the Table there being no necessity to go thither then for the Edification of the whole Congregation many of which to be edified were not confirm'd and so no Communicants For by our Ecclesiastical Laws Lib. Can. de Concionat Reformat Leg. Eccles Tit. de Eccles Minist ejus c. 10. it is appointed to Ministers in discharging their Functions to do all for Edification as they have the best Warrant from the Old and New Testament yea and the Bishops are required so to govern and feed the whole People of God not indeed that they may rule over their Faith but that they may shew that they themselves are truly the Servants of the Servants of God and that the Authority and Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical is more especially committed to them not for any other cause but that by their Ministry and Diligence very many may be joined to Christ and they who are already Christ's may increase in him and be edified and if some be deficient they may be brought home to the Shepherd Christ the Lord and be confirmed by wholesom Repentance Hence 3. These Ministers find no Prescript or Rubrick expresly enjoining the reading of part of the Communion-Service at the Table when there is no Communion there For in the last Rubrick where part of the Communion-Office is annexed to that of the morning-Morning-Prayer viz. Upon Sundays and other Holy-Days if there be no Communion shall be said all that is appointed at the Communion untill the End of the general Prayers you may plainly observe the Convocation in compiling the Book aim'd at having the Thing done not at the Place where And when this Lawyer looks back from this last Rubrick to one of the first he considers not that the Station in the Place he contends for respects the Communion-Time when the Table hath a fair white Linnen-Cloth upon it not when it is uncovered with such a Cloth and stands unprepared for the Communion-Office Neither doth he consider that the Minister doth officiate rightly as well as truly if he doth as in Can. 14 with 45. read the Things prescribed in the Common prayer-Prayer-Book distinctly and reverently in such Place of every Church with the Allowance of the Bishop so as the People may be most edified or to their best Edification Nor that in Can. 56. for Preachers and Lecturers to read Divine Service the Church doth not appoint reading any of it at the Altar under the East end of the Chancel when there is no Communion which they would no doubt have done in that very Canon where they appoint twice in a Year reading for a Test of thorow Conformity if the reading of it twice there as this Lawyer would have it had been essential to Conformity and the not so doing had been constitutive of a Conventicle Nor the Advertisement Artic. 1. Jan. 5. 1564 7 Eliz. in Bishop Sparrow's Collections that the Common-Prayer may be said or sung decently and distinctly in such a Place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the Largeness and Straitness of the Church or Quire so as the People may be most edified And I am

sure if the People be not edified the great Canon of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. 26 must be evacuated and Dr. Beveridg's learned Sermon thereon be of no signification But this Magisterial Lawyer who would correct Magnificat conceiting the Church commands to go up to the Altar when there is no Communion but can see none for ascending the Pulpit p. 17. If he would but open his Eyes he might see an express positive Precept for the Sermon then or one of the Homilies tho none such for going up to the Altar on a Non-Communion Day However he is miserably out in his Law when he tells his Reverend Fathers that this part of the Liturgy gives sole Authority to their Sermons p. 17. whereas they legally receive Authority from the Bishop empower'd by this same Statute to preach the Word before they can as Priests read the Communion-Service at the Table And when they enter upon Livings to reside there being allowed to be Preachers by whom the Bishops No but according to his Opinion by reading the Communion-Service at the Communion-Table when there is no Communion and obliged also by that which he before profess'd to own for Law viz. Can. 45. to preach one Sermon every Sunday in the Year the Bishop at their Institution having committed to them the Care of Souls It seems this Lawyer 's Zeal doth not spend it self in that Care because he writes of Sermons with so much contempt And yet one acquainted with him might demand of him according to his Hypothesis whether reading Communion-Service in a Parish-Church or Chappel on Sundays and Holy-days to above four the standing at the Communion-Table when there is no Communion if there be no Sermon or Homily were that a Conventicle yea or no If yea that would be strange News and must the Parochial Ministers be bound to preach or homilize every Holy-Day tho not above five or six in the Church How then comes this Director with his Ironies to depreciate Sermons as he doth p. 17. Or would he account the Prayer read at the Altar as he contends having not the whole viz. the Sermon prescribed in the Book to be the Sacrifice of Fools p. 3. If no according to him there may in some Cases be an Omission of a Thing enjoined in the Rubrick and yet no Conventicle much more the Non-observance of that Circumstance of Place when there is no Communion that the Reason of the Thing doth not require it and yet no Conventicle against the Intendment of his Pamphlet Whereupon it may be further noted That if his Argument he labours in had any thing of weight in it for such a strict Observation of Place and Station then laying stress on the Rubrick for the Sermon and Homily in the Directions about the Communion-Service which shew every of these is to be performed should be preach'd or read at the Communion-Table the Lawyer 's Argument would have more in it than he thought of or would have But the greatest Emphasis of all he hath to say lies in that 't is said Then the Priest shall return to the Lord's Table it seems it is not going up to the Altar which yet in the same Page he says the Church commands but cannot produce her express Warrant unless he relating to the Church of Rome had the Rubricks in the Roman Missal or Breviary running in his Mind viz. Reversis Ministris de Pulpito ad Altare and Sacerdos revertat se ad Altare ad Divinum Officium exequendum But that respects the Communion-Time when the Table is covered with a fair Linnen Cloth and then may likely import no more than turning to the Table after the reading of the Creed whilst the Alms for the Poor are collected And we know the Timing of Things to be read is not always according to the precise Order of the placing the Rubrick in the Book For the Exhortations to be read antecedent to the Communion are to follow immediately after the Sermon or Homily and seem most proper to be read there where the Sermon is by the Ordinary appointed to be preached And upon this occasion it may be noted that the Import of the Prayer for the whole Estate of Christ's Church Militant looking at the Petitions of it seems likely to be originally composed chiefly only for those who could read Homilies or were not able to compose a Prayer for themselves before the Sermon or Homily however as to its place in the Rubrick it be post-pon'd for therein you know we pray Give Grace O heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively Word and rightly and duly administer thine holy Sacraments And to all thy People give thy heavenly Grace and especially to this Congregation here present that with meek Heart and due Reverence they may hear and receive thy Holy Word truly serving thee in Holiness and Righteousness all the Days of their Life Whereas this Lawyer saith p. 17. All the Rubricks belong to the Communion-Service when there is no Communion as well as when there is one Which taking the Rubricks universally for all and every of them implies a Contradiction a usual Thing in his Pamphlet I know of none that doth strictly appoint the Place when there is no Communion it being presupposed from the Reason of the Thing but one of the last is chiefly to be regarded which respects the Thing and Time viz. Morning-Service and appoints so much of the Matter then to be read not naming where but implying there where the Minister is reading the Morning-Service unto which such a part of the Communion-Service is appendag'd for further Edification of all the People And how fond soever this Writer is of having the Priest enjoined to stand at the North-side of the Communion-Table when there is no Communion with all his Strains of unanswerable Arguments in his own conceit he hath not prov'd it to be the Intention of our Church Tho to prove what he would have and to overthrow the Pleas against it he hath made a fearful Spluttering with his Ergo's as a Disputant able to baffle as he imagines all Opponents who he presumes dare not stand seeing him come blustering and hearing him say like Cleveland of the quondam Arch-Bishop of York Now my young Sophister what think'st of this Chimaera 's real Ergo falleris For it may be demanded of this eager Disputant who contends so much for the Ministers standing to read on the North-side of the Altar when 't is said his own Adoration is towards the East How at an Oblong Table plac'd Altar-wise close up to the East Wall of the Chancel the Minister can be said to stand on the North-side of the Table when indeed it is but at the North-End where it may be the Table being narrow he hath scarce Elbow-Room with his broad Book yet that was carefully provided for in the Scotch Book Which I hear so gravell'd a great Doctor

would not arietare as he doth against our Bishops themselves as well as the rest of the Clergy with his cornuted Arguments p. 2 3 9 10. But I humbly conceive this Practice of our Parochial Ministers to read what the Book prescribes of the Communion-Service in the Desk to be a kind of Prescription which say the Ecclesiastical Laws Tit. de Prescrip c. 1. is a certain Right congruous to the Time taking Force from the Authority of the Laws which hath not been interrupted except for a little space in some few Places which was attended with a great Concussion in the State The Practice did not cease but was only hindred a little by Force or the Male-Administration of a Power which came to be questioned Wherefore methinks the Practice which the Ministers of our Church have been and are generally in possession of not having been bonâ fide by any Legal Process and Judicial Determination interrupted being really for Edification should still obtain But this Master of the Ceremonies stands upon his Punctilio's and if every Diminutive Puncto be not precisely observed according to the novel Conceit his narrow Soul hath of the meaning of the Law which yet wise Men used to account Universal Practice a good Interpreter of he would peremptorily conclude the most grave and Orthodox Assembly not hitting his Cue tho in the Chappel-Royal would commence a Conventicle p. 7. Difficiles Nugae This 't is for a Lenten Lawyer to feed upon Mint Annise and Cummin and neglect the weightier Matters of the Law Out of meer pity to him I cannot but thwart his great-letter'd Aphorism with another in little Letters as significant viz. Minimum est curare minima The Earl of Clarendon's Saying to Cressy p. 137. may serve for an Exposition of it viz. They do equally mistake who believe that the Out-works of Religion must be equally with the same Passion guarded and preserved as the Walls themselves that no Form or Ceremony or Circumstance in Religion may not be alter'd or parted with more than the Faith it self But this invariable Lawyer in his Retirement will not permit his Diocesan to determine a doubtful Rubrick by a secundum usum p. 9. but will have all tied up to the Letter tho the Law it self in the Preface to the Book expects It should be allowed such just and favourable Instruction as in common Equity ought to be allowed to all Humane Writings And again there it saith Reading should be in such Order as is most easy and plain for the understanding both of Readers and Hearers And if Doubts arise about the Use and Practice concerning the Manner how to understand do and execute the Things contained in this Book the Discretion of the Bishop is to be regarded Who I have heard in the Diocess of London hath not now any more than his two immediate Predecessors when no Communion was blamed Reading of Communion-Service in the Desk for the Edification of the People but rather when they have been by several Ministers consulted in that particular case both at their Visitations and other Times when they have come to preach in their Churches on Holy-Days have ordered them to be read as they used to do when they were not there Perhaps thinking that good Advice which King James gave in little Matters to the Arch-Bishop of Spalato viz. That he should leave Things as he found them But this fervent Stickler is for his new Way which if Parish-Ministers will not walk in according to his guidance then they are Conventiclers and Nonconformists of the worser sort p. 7 8. If they will not walk to and fro betwixt the Desk and the Altar after his measures will not be chancell'd when they read Common-Prayer to the whole Congregation they must be censur'd for cancelling the Laws p. 13. Whatever any of them have to plead for their Practice he fancies he can easily answer their Pleas how rational soever by begging the Question and holding the Conclusion Those who yield that the Letter of the Rubrick may favour his Opinion yet with the allowance of their Superiors for Peace sake and Edification comply with the general Practice as comporting with the Spirit and End of the Law he reprimands as wilful Transgressors p. 4. And those who are persuaded that comparing one Rubrick with another and other Parts of the Law with the Canons as expressing the Sence of the Law-makers they have sufficient Warrant to abide in the Desk and so differ in Judgment from him he doth Dictator-like determine to be Conventiclers and Nonconformists of the worst complexion Whereas the former upon expence of Circumstances are not culpable and the latter stand upon the Justification of their Practice notwithstanding this Lawyer 's Opinion is against them For besides that the former may well conclude themselves faultless from what I have noted of Custom Usuage and Practice with the Import of the Statute about Conventicles which this Gentleman looked upon without Spectacles If they were wilful Transgressors there would have been some Law for their Punishments or the Bishops would have sharply remark'd them in their Visitations had they had a Warrant for it or something would have been proposed in the Convocation when sitting not to have suffered such Transgressors to have gone unpunished none of which do easily occur The latter have not only the Plea of the former which as a concurrent Evidence will much strengthen their Justification and Observation of the Law that ought to be expounded to the most benign and favourable Sence for the Benefit of those who are to be regulated by it but they have expresly 1. The Order That Morning as well as Evening-Prayer shall be used in the accustomed Place of the Church Chappel or Chancel and that they take to be the convenient Seat made for the Minister to read Service in Can. 82. For in the Preface to the Common-Prayer Book 't is asserted that as the Apostle teacheth All Things done in the Church ought to be referred to Edification pleasing God and profiting his People And the Compilers of the Book like not that which may more confound or darken than declare and set forth Christ's Benefits to us but signify further If Men declare themselves to be more studious of Unity and Concord than of Innovations which as much as may be with true setting forth of Christ's Religion are always to be eschewed they will mostly use such Orders as they think best to set forth God's Honour and Glory to the reducing of the People to a most perfect and godly Living without Error or Superstition But if the Minister without necessity pass from the Desk to the Altar at the East End of the Chancel from the Altar to the Pulpit thence back again this would more confound and be less for the Profit of all the People and make them jealous of that Superstition which the Papists have by the Protestants been charged with in such needless Motions Passes and Repasses according to