Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	common_a	prayer_n	prescribe_v	2,797	5	9.8241	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27031	A letter from a minister to a person of quality shewing some reasons for his nonconformity.	A. B.	1662 (1662)	Wing B14; ESTC R12373	8,893	4

form of words prescribed as well as from his own present or premeditatd conception especially where the things prayed for are not fluctuating and falling under changeable circumstances as the private concerns of particular persons but setled in their own nature and always the same from time to time as the publick concerns of a Nation as the life of the King the prosperity of the Kingdom rain in drought fair weather in harvest wherefore I see no exception why Prayers about these if so commanded should not be made in the very same words so likewise the Word and Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper are always the same without any variety of intention and therefore I judg we may always beg a blessing upon them by a prescribed form without any variety of expression And as I say nothing against a Liturgy or prescribed form of publick Prayers in the general so neither against the main Doctrine contained in the the Prayers of this Book of Common Prayers in particular But withal I look upon it as quite another thing to be bound up to declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained in the Book together with those Prayers My reason is this because I cannot but take assent and consent according to the general sense and meaning of those words among all writers and speakers in all Languages viz. That assent with reference to the party assenting relates to his understanding and with reference to the thing assented to that it relates to the truth and rightfulness of it So again that consent with reference to the party consenting relates to his will and with reference to the thing consented to that it relates to the goodness expediency and behoofulness of it Wherefore according to the natural and genuine interpretation of these words assent and consent when I declare my unfeigned assent to all and every thing contain'd and prescribed in and by the Book it is all one as if I had declared That I own and acknowledg profess and witness that all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer is true and right and not the least error in it from top to bottom not in any rite or ceremony not in the form and manner of making ordaining and consecrating Bishops Priests or Deacons no not so much as in pointing the Psalms or in any other tittle or circumstance So again when I declare my unfeigned consent to all and every thing contained in it it is all one as if I had declared That I heartily and cordially close in and chuse every thing mentioned and prescribed in the said Book as good and expedient as most eligible and behooful to be done practised and observed Now that this is the true meaning of the word consent the Law-givers themselves who best understood their own mind and intention make it most evident for in the very body of the same Act speaking of Lectures viz. what these are to do and declare instead of the word consent they put in the word approve as a word equipollent and of the same signification For the Lecturer is bound openly and publickly to declare his assent to and approbation of the said Book and to the use of all the Prayers Rites Ceremonies forms and orders therein contained and prescribed Now taking these words assent and consent this sense and meaning and otherwise I cannot take them to make any found sense of them I dare as soon eat hot fire-coals as declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book of common-Common-Prayer because several things are therein contained and prescribed which I deem scarce right and true much less good and expedient to be done and embraced And here to omit many things which I scruple I shall pitch only upon two or three which I cannot approve 1. I neither do nor can approve of the Order appointed for the reading of the holy Scripture my reason is this Because many Books of the Apocrypha are commanded to be read for the Lessons of the day as the fabulous Legends of Tobit and his Dog Bell and the Dragon Judith Baruch with the rest and these are not only to be read wholly intirely morning and evening two months together but all of them also under the title and notion of holy Scripture for so in the whole lump together they are stiled in the order and no note of discrimination to make any distinction between one and other But now in the interim in the said order as appears by the Kalender some Books of the Sacred Canon are wholly left out and never to be read some of them within a very little some of them but half to be read and many of them mutilated and curtail'd as to several Chapters contained in them Here I cannot declare my unfeigned assent and consent 2. I neither do nor can approve of the order appointed for the Ministration of Baptism 1. Because of God-fathers and God-mothers 2. Because of the Cross 3. Because of what is annexed at the end of the Sacrament I do not approve of the strict requiring of God-fathers and God-mothers to stand as Sureties and undertakers for the Child to be baptized viz. That he shall renounce the Devil and all his works and constantly believe Gods holy word and obediently keep his commandments 1. Because it is unscriptural 2. Because in the interim the father of the child is left out if not wholly thrust out I am sure he is not mentioned nor taken notice of at all in that publick stipulation as if he had no concern in it though it must needs be his proper and peculiar Province and place to undertake such a charge for his own child and flesh according to the Law of God and nature Scripture requires not God-fathers but fathers to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 3. Because God-fathers and God mothers are generally brought to the Font to avouch a great untruth and make themselves obnoxious of lying and perjury in the face of God and the Church For experience sheweth that though they solemnly engage in such a promise yet they never or very rarely perform it perhaps some of them never see the child more after the Christning day nor ever enquire more about it Yea though they so solemnly engage on the behalf of the Infant yet they hold themselvs never the more engaged but look upon all as a meer Christning Ceremony and complement For suppose a Parent afterward should challenge his Gossips and say you promised when you stood Sureties for my child at the Font to call upon him to hear Sermons and to see him well instructed in the rudiments and principles of Religion c. but you have not done it and through your neglect he does not hear Sermons he is not Catechised he does not renounce the works of the Devil but is in the high way to

A LETTER from a MINISTER to a Person of Quality shewing some Reasons for his Non-conformity MADAM YOU were pleased to require of me the reason of my Non-conformity in compliance with your command I promised to give you some account of it but not the tythe which might be said in the cause and therefore shall not put the whole matter and issue upon what I have here suddenly committed to Paper but only to satisfie you that I have somewhat of apology for my not conforming and that I seem at least to my self not wilful and fanatical but rational and conscientious in refusing Three grand declarations are required to be made by all those who will conform The first concerning the Book of Common-Prayer the second concerning taking up arms against the King the third concerning the Solemn League and Covenant Now with reference to all these especially the first and last I have had hitherto insuperable objections against the making any such Declaration The first Declaration concerning the Book of common-Common-Prayer is to be made in these very words viz. I A. B. do declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book intituled The Book of common-Common-Prayer and administration of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the form and manner of making ordaining and consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons Madam Here is required assent and consent yea unfeigned assent and consent and not only to all in general but to every thing in particular contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer even whatsoever is there printed and set down from the very beginning of it to the very end of the same Surely words could not be devised by all the wit of man more comprehensive and more significant to testifie our highest justification and commendation of every point and syllable of every rite and ceremony of every matter and thing contained in the whole Book and in every page and line of it A man might well think that this Book of Common-Prayer dropped immediately out of Heaven and that it is nothing else but a continued Oracle from first to last I think here is as much fully to be declared concerning the Book of Common-Prayer as possibly can be concerning the Book of God the Bible it self Yea I question whether many a sober man would not scruple to declare so much concerning any copy of the Bible now extant in the world in any language whatsoever even the Originals themselves not excepted which by transcribing may have their faults and therefore every thing contained in them not to be unfeignedly assented and consented unto Madam We Protestants protest vehemently against the Popes Infallibility and with the same reason against the Infallibility of Councils whether General National or Provincial now they who devised and compiled this Book of Common Prayer themselves were Protestants and at the most and best but a National Council and therefore if true to their own faith must needs acknowledg themselves far from being infallible in every point and thing devised and compiled by them and yet for these mortal erring men like unto our selves to injoyn and require of all others such an unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed by and in their devised form and system of Worship do notwithstanding in so doing in a diametrical opposition assume unto themselves an infallible spirit else stand guilty of an high presumption in requiring such a Declaration Madam In the Preface to this Book of Common-Prayer they profess their own firm perswasion that there is nor was before their last revising of it nothing in the whole Book contrary to the Word of God or to sound Doctrine or which a godly man may not use or submit unto with a good Conscience Now though this be their perswasion yet it is not every mans perswasion and therefore unreasonable to force others to the same profession Hast thou faith have it to thy self force it not upon others compell them not to think as thou thinkest believe as thou believest to declare as thou declarest study thine own and neighbours peace better and the rather because thou art a fallible creature and may be in an error as well as any other And according to the tenour and candor of this blessed rule such was the practice and proceedings of our preceding Governours with reference to this Book of common-Common-Prayer from and since our happy Reformation For they never went about thus strictly to injoyn the Ministers to declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book but only appoinned it to be read and used and the rites and ceremonies of it duly to be observed and no more This was their moderation and piety at least their prudence and policy in respect of scandal and further inconveniency and not without cause for had the Ministers in those days been rigorously required to declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the said Book as we do in our days I am prone to believe that Hundreds of those who conformed and submitted to the use of things then established in the Church would have thereupon turned as great Non-conformists as any among us and so continued till their last breath For what a conscientious person may think meet to use and submit unto is one thing but what he declares he owns and approves is another of a different nature Though for peace sake I could swallow down some gnats and make no bones of them yet if at the same time I shall moreover be compelled to say and avouch That these gnats are no gnats or though I know them to be gnats yet that I like them and love to swallow them down now these gnats are changed into Camels and my throat is not wide enough to give them any passage Upon which very account I doubt not to declare That present Conformity is foreign and quite of another nature from conformity heretofore Conscience being now much more forced and violated by them in the Chair I would to God therefore they had required no more in conformity than use and submission as they there speak for Jobn his driving on furiously is dangerous and I heartily pray the Chariot may not be overturned in the end but in the interim I cannot keep pace with them nor declare my unfeigned assent and consent to their great zeal nor yet to the great product and manifesto of it in any such imposition Madam As to a Book of common-Common-Prayer in general or an established Liturgy in the Church I shall object nothing for according to my poor understanding I never yet heard a sound reason given why a man may not pray in a