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
A44141	A correct copy of some letters written to J.M., a nonconformist teacher concerning the gift and forms of prayer by Matthew Hole ...	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.; J. M. (John Moore), 1641 or 2-1717.	1698 (1698)	Wing H2408; ESTC R19302	77,888	204

may be and are very well provided for by well-compos'd Forms for Solomon tells us There is nothing new under the Sun But if any such new and unheard of Occurrence should happen that Authority neither hath nor can well make provision for there is none will blame you if you either compose a Form or use your free Prayer upon such an occasion Provided it be done with modesty and due respect to the Authority of your Superiours So that these things well considered neither is the Case of Publick Forms weakened nor the necessity of Free Prayer confirm'd by your frequent Talk of Providential Events and Occurrences Your other Objection shall be answered in my next in the mean time I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. April 9. 1697. LETTER IX To J. M. SIR I Come now according to Promise to consider the second Objection against Forms which you likewise make use of as an Argument for free Prayer And that is taken from the tendency of Forms to cloy and dull your Devotion and the aptness of free Prayer to quicken and enliven the same A great Fault indeed in the One and a great Convenience in the Other if both be true but I think we shall find upon examination that neither is First then you say Publick Forms are apt to deaden and dull your Devotion But why so Why for two Reasons viz. 1. Because they are constantly the same old Words and likewise 2ly Because they are red out of a Book too Now if these be good Reasons you must be as dull as a Beetle in reading the Holy Scriptures and stark dead at the Lord's Prayer for these are always the same Words and read out of a Book too And he that can find no Life or Spirit in reading of these cannot be edifyed by any Prayer Our Saviour exhorted to the frequent reading of the Scriptures 1 Tim. 4.13 and the Apostle to give attendance to reading Which was done by the Primitive Christians with that Intention and Fervency that as Origen tells us The devout Reader seem'd to be in a manner inspir'd But you are dull'd it seems with reading old things and nothing can please you but what is new and speaking without Book Might not this Sir be the occasion of setting up new Lights above the Scriptures to please such new-fangled Humours and enlighten such dull Understandings Yea hath not this occasion'd the laying aside the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed because they are still the same old Words and read out of a Book too But tell me Sir did Christ prescribe a Form of Prayer to deaden or help the Devotion of his Followers Or did the Holy Ghost destroy all the Life and Vigour of it by putting it into Writing that it might be read and used by Christians in all Ages If this were true Oral Tradition would be a greater help to Devotion than the Oracles of God for these are old written Truths and the other the various and changeable Inventions of Men. Does not the Apostle bid us To hold fast the Form of sound words which we can neither hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 nor keep sound long if it be subject to daily Variations Must we be always Children to be pleas'd only with New Things Ephes 4.14 1 Cor. 14.20 and like them to be carried about with every wind of Doctrin Or must we not in Vnderstanding be Men by standing firm to the Ancient Faith and keeping close to the receiv'd and well-order'd Models of Devotion But why Sir should grave and well-order'd Words in Prayer put such a Damp upon your Spirits and dull your Devotion One would think that few and well-weigh'd Expressions should better tend to make Men soberly and religiously Devout than pouring out many new raw and indigested ones and that the Heart should be more at leisure to attend the great business of Prayer when Matter and Words are well prepared for it than when 't is called off and hindred by the Study and Invention of both A Wise Man would think it a great quickening of Devotion to consider that he is joyning with the whole Church at the same time and in the same Prayers and would thereby be encourag'd with greater hopes of success from the harmony and agreement of our Petitions which our Saviour hath made necessary and effectual to that end Mat. 18. But I fear Sir the dulness you speak of will be found more the Fault of the Persons than the Prayers For 't is not possible that the well-order'd Matter and Words of a pious Form should so disorder the Spirits and dull your Affections if there were not something else in the matter Have you not Sir some other Game to play upon the People which is better carried on by new Words than old Then 't is no wonder that that is accounted dull which does not move forward and advance the Design Have you not entertain'd some Prejudices your self or infus'd Prejudices into others against Forms As That they cannot provide for all Emergencies and that the constant Use and Repetition of them is apt to cloy and surfeit and so have put People out of Love with plain wholsome Food by treating them with Kickshaws and Varieties 'T is ten to one but there is something of this in the matter Your unjust Censures Outcries and Declamations against pious and publick Forms hath caused many to neglect the publick Worship and made others careless and irreverent in it And if so you must answer for your own and others dulness which you have unhappily occasioned Secondly You say That old and frequently repeated Forms are not more apt to dull than new and varied Prayers are to quicken and enliven you for you find a different Heat and Flame in such Prayers But pray Sir what kind of Heat is that you feel in such Prayers Is it not rather the Warmth and Heat of Fancy than any real Fervency of Spirit This is a frequent and dangerous Mistake and hath impos'd upon many who have taken some false Heats for true Zeal and the delusions of the Imagination for the true Devotion of the Heart But because this is not easily discern'd or understood by vulgar Minds I will endeavour as clearly as I can to discover the Delusion To this end we may observe That as in the Body there is a Natural Heat residing in the Heart which conveys warm Blood and Spirits to all the Members and in this the Health and sound Constitution of the Body mainly consists so there are sometimes the preternatural Heats of Fevers and other Distempers which too much inflame the Blood and put the Spirits into a violent and disorderly motion and this is an evil habit and indisposition of the Body Just so likewise it is with the Soul there is a pious fervency of Spirit which resides in the Heart and fills it with strong desires after God and an inward delight in him and in this consists sound and

Ecclesiis The Apostles did set in order in the Church such things as had relation unto Order as Forms of Prayer and the like Dyonysius the Areopagite Eccl Hier. p. 77 who was Cotemporary with the Apostles testifies that there were then Forms of Prayer to which all the People said Amen And tho' some doubt hath been made whether the Book in which this is recorded be his yet 't is by all granted to be exceeding Ancient In the next Age to the Apostles Epist ad Trajan Pliny in his Letter to Trajan makes mention of set Forms of Hymns and Praises us'd by Christians at that time Soliti sunt saith he Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem And both Ignatius and Justin Martyr speak of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Common Prayer that was used among them In the second and third Centuries we find Origen in his Book against Celsus Origen contra cels lib. 1.8 speaking of Christians using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Appointed Prayers And in one of his Homilies citing a piece of Liturgy then in use Homil 11. Frequenter in Oratione dicimus Da Omnipotens da nobis partem cum Prophetis i.e. We often say in our Prayers give Almighty God O give us a Part with the Prophets St. Cyprian makes frequent mention of a Liturgy in the Church of Carthage telling us of the Ministers saying in the beginning of it Sursum Corda Lift up your Hearts and the People answering Habemus ad Dominum We lift them up unto the Lord. And the same is derived down and used in our Liturgy to this Day And Tertullian mentions the same Form of Abrenunciation that is still used in our Office of Baptism and withal adds That they had set Hymns for particular Times and Occasions Eusebius in the life of Constantine tells us that besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the established Prayers he ordered Forms of Prayer to be composed for the use of the Soldiers Euseb in Vit. Constant lib. 9. 〈◊〉 9 c. Which plainly shews his Approbation and Use of them If we go forward to the fourth and following Centuries we shall find our selves compass'd about with a whole Cloud of Witnesses St. Crysostome St. Ambrose St. Basil St. Austine with many others some whereof were Framers of Liturgies Besides many Counsils that decreed and established the use of them As Consil Laod. Can. 18. Carthag Can. 23. Milev Can. 12. If we come down to the Times of the Reformation we shall find all the Lutheran and Foreign Churches using Forms of Prayer for Publick Worship Yea if we come to Geneva and consult your beloved John Calvin the Father of Presbytery we shall find him using a constant Form of Prayer in his Publick Ministration And likewise composing Forms of Prayer for the use of Geneva which were approved of and established by the Authority of that City And for his Judgment of the use of Forms you may take it from himself who in his Letter to the Lord Protector thus declares himself Calv. Epist 87. For so much as concerns Forms of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rites Valde probo c. I much approve that they be determined so that it may not be lawful for Ministers in their Administrations to vary from them By which you may see how far you do degenerate from the Principles and are gone off from the Practices of the first Founder of your Sect. Yea 't is well known that those who were styled Puritans or Presbyterians before the great Rebellion Conscientiously used and frequented the Publick Liturgy and inveigh'd bitterly against all separation from it Thus you see the Christian Church ever since the days of Inspiration hath every where Celebrated Publick Worship by Liturgies or Composed Forms of Prayer So that Extempore or Free Prayer was a thing unknown to the primitive and purer Ages of the Church and plainly appears to be a late Invention By whom it was brought in and for what End I shall accquaint you very shortly In the mean time what can it be ascribed to but to your Ignorance or Pride thus to set up your Self against the Judgment and Practice of the whole Christian Church in all Ages 2. But you ask Secondly Who are those Uninspired Persons that have a Commission to compose these Prayers and likewise who are they that have Authority from God to impose them For the composing these Publick Prayers that undoubtedly lies in the Power of the Church which from the beginning of Christianity hath ever exercised it For Christ sent forth his Apostles not only to teach but to Rule and Govern his Church That all things in it may be done Decently and in Order and to the use of Edifying And Beza as was before observed tells us that Forms of Prayer were one of those things that related to Order and were settled by them 1 Tim. 3. ● 2. St. Paul directs Timothy to take care that Publick Prayers be made or composed for the use of the Church of Ephesus of which he was made an Over-seeer Now this being a matter of standing use and benefit to the Church is derived down to their Successours with whom Christ promised to be to the end of the World And therefore we find that the Rulers and Pastors of the Church meeting in Synods and Convocations have upon Mature Advice and Deliberation framed these Publick Liturgies ever since Mile Concil Can. 12.23 The Milevitan Council forbids the admitting any other Prayers in the Church for the Publick Worship of God than those that are so made and so approved lest thro' Ignorance or want of Care something might slip in that was contrary to the Faith But who are they say you that have Authority to impose them upon all Ministers who residing with are presumed best to know the Necessities of the People The Composing of Prayers we see is in the Church the Imposing them lyes in the Chief Magistrate who is Supreme in his Realm in all Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil For the Church being incorporated into the State neither of them can be well govern'd unless the Prince be Supreme in both And therefore a great Man hath hath told us That the Church directing and the Sovereign Enacting have ever had this Power since the State became Christian Neither can we see how things can be better ordered than that what is well considered and tendered by the Church should be ratified by the Sanction and Authority of the Prince But you it seems think your self wiser than both and can order these things better by your present Conceptions than they upon all their Deliberation and that because you residing with can better know the Necessities of the People When Sir will you be so modest as to think the Rulers in Church and State better Judges of the general Necessities of the People than you or any private Person Is there any thing in the