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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	form_n	prayer_n	prescribe_v	2,556	5	9.9248	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95762	The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. Of Babylon (Rev. 18. 4.) being the present See of Rome. (With a sermon of Bishop Bedels upon the same words.) Of laying on of hands (Heb. 6. 2.) to be an ordained ministery. Of the old form of words in ordination. Of a set form of prayer. / Published and enlarged by Nicholas Bernard D.D. and preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne, London. Unto which is added a character of Bishop Bedel, and an answer to Mr. Pierces fifth letter concerning the late primate.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642.; Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1659 (1659)	Wing U189; Thomason E1783_1; ESTC R209661	108,824	393

disliked and such onely to be offered up to God as by extemporary gift are conceived and uttered And that the Minister should use no set form of prayer but as they are moved by Gods spirit I answer It is a foul errour so to think For as there be necessary things to be prayed for of all men and alwayes and those are the most things which we are to pray to the Lord for so there may be a prescript form of prayer made concerning all such things which being so what letteth that in the reading of such forms either of confessing of sinnes request or thanksgiving what letteth I say that the hearers hearts may not profitably go on with the same both to humble to quicken and to comfort For is the reading it self unpure when the Minister in his own behalf and the peoples uttereth them to God I speak not ye see of the matter of prayer but of reading it for if the matter be erroneus and naught the pronounceing of it maketh it not good any more then the reading doth and if it be good and pure being uttered or pronounced the reading cannot hurt it or make it evill And as the Church in the Scripture did and doth sing Psalmes upon a book to God and yet though it utter a prescript form of words I hope none will say that it is a sin to do so the heart being prepared In like manner to follow a prescript form of words in praying is no sinne and therefore ought not to be offensive to any c. And further they may know that in all Churches and the best reformed there is a prescript form of prayer used and therefore they who are of mind that it ought not to be must seperate themselves from all Churches Also if a set form of prayer were unlawful then neither were the Lords prayer which is a form of prayer prescribed by our Saviour himself to be used And so he proceeds to perswade all good Christians to lay aside contention and endlesse and needlesse questions about this matter and with well order'd hearts and minds to attend unto and apply to themselves the prayers which either before Sermon or after Sermon are uttered or the other which through the whole action of Gods worship are read in their hearing c. So much Mr. Rogers Now this book of the seven Treatises hath been since epitomized by Mr. Egerton and entituled the practice of Christianitie which hath an Epistle of Doctor Gouge before it in a high commendation of it Now at the conclusion of that he hath added Certain Advertisements concerning prayer in which his or both their judgements in this subject are declared accordingly viz. That it is lawfull and in some cases expedient to use a set form of prayer Question saith he is made by many of the lawfulnesse or at least of the expediencie of praying by the help of a book or of using a prescript and set form of prayer It is to be considered that there be divers degrees and measures of gifts both naturall as of grace besides some have been by custome more trained and exercised in this holy dutie then others c. which difference I have observed not onely in private Christians but also in some most reverend faithfull and worthy Ministers Some using both in their publick Ministerie and in their private families a stinted prayer and set form of words with little alteration at all except some extraordinarie occasion have happened and yet both sorts so furnished with pietie and learning as I could hardly prefer the one before the other (a) Liberty in solitary prayers Moreover whereas in respect of the place and company there be three sorts of prayer publick in the Church private in the family and secret by a man self greatest liberty may be taken in secret and solitarie prayer because we are sure that if there be a believeing humble upright heart God will not upbraid any man for his method order words or utterance Yet in private prayer we may not take so great a libertie Lesse liberty in private prayer c. and some well-affected have been somewhat faultie and offensive in this behalfe weak and tender Christians such as commonly are in a family are not so capable of that kind of prayer which is called conceived or extemporate varying every time in words and phrases manner and order though the matter and substance be the same Least liberty in publick prayer But especially care must be had in the publick congregation that nothing be done in praying preaching or Administration of Sacraments but that which is decent and orderly because there many eyes do see us and many ears do hear us and therefore it is expedient for the most part to keep a constant form both of matter and words and yet without servile tying our selves to words and syllables but using herein such libertie and freedome as may stand with comelinesse c. And so he proceeds thus to direct men that though a Book may be used in private prayer yet that it is much better to get their prayer by heart commending the use of the Lords Prayer and the varietie of other formes of godly prayers in print penned by forreigne Divines as our own countreymen as Mr. Bradford that blessed Martyr Master Deering Mr. Hieron and divers others yet living whose printed prayers are nothing inferiour to the former And so because there ever have been and still are many Babes in the Church of God which have need of milk c. and some of bad memories and heavie spirits c. he frames divers formes of prayers to be used for Morning and Evening in case of sicknesse for the Lords day c. Thus much very excellently Mr. Egerton approved by Doctor Gouge Mr. Arthur Hildersham Preacher at Ashbie-delazouch in Leicester-shire upon the 51 Psalme p. 63. saith thus I dare not deny but a weak Christian may use the help of a good prayer-Prayer-book better to pray on a book then not to pray at all Certainly 't is a spirit of errour that hath taught the world otherwise First our blessed Saviour prescribed to his Disciples a Forme of prayer not only to be to them and his whole Church a rule and sampler according to which all our prayers should be framed as appears when he saith Matth. 6.9 After this manner pray ye but even for them to say tying themselves to the very words of it as appeareth Luke 11.2 when ye pray say our Father c. By which answer of our Saviour to his Disciples it may also appear that John taught his disciples to pray by giving them forms of prayer to say yea even in secret prayer Matth. 6.6 2. All the best reformed Churches do now and ever have used even in publick Liturgies prescript forms of prayer and have judged them of great use and necessitie for the edification of the Church And surely this argument is not to be contemned by any

imponit manum subjecto reditum Spiritus sancti invocat indicta in populum oratione altari reconciliat c. advers Lucifer Jerome c. p. 96. He thus declares his judgement viz. As for the Ministerial sentence of private absolution it can be no more then a declaration what God hath done it hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan 's absolution God hath taken away thy sins then which construction especially of words judiciall there is nothing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God the Jewes in Malachy to have blessed the proud man which sin and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy but to blesse to justifie and to absolve are as commonly used for words of judgement or declaration as of true and reall efficacy yea even by the opinion of the Master of sentences c. Priests are authorized to loose and bind that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed c. Saint Jerome also whom the Master of the Sentences alledgeth directly affirmeth That as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove Leprosies so the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit sinnes do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear or free Tom. 6. Comment in 16. Mat. So saith Mr. Hooker when conversion by manifest tokens did seem effected Absolution ensuing which could not make served onely to declare men innocent p. 108. When any of ours ascribeth the work of remission to God and interprets the Priests sentence to be but a solemn declaration of that which God himselfe hath already performed they i. e. the Church of Rome scorne it And so after much to this purpose he thus concludes p. 113. Let it suffice to have shewen how God alone doth truly give and private Ministerial absolution but declare remission of sinnes And thus I leave Mr. Hooker under Doctor Heylen's Censure who hath already concluded that forgivenesse of sins by the Priest onely declarativè doth not come up to the doctrine of the Church of England Though the reason he gives because it holds the Priest doth forgive sins authoritativè I do not see the force of The former supposing the latter for the Officer whose place it is solemnly to make Proclamation of the Kings pardon doth it authoritativè nay dares not do it unlesse he were authorized accordingly And so much for the Primates judgement of those words of Ordination Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest are forgiven whose sins thou retainest are retained The PRIMATES judgment of the Vse of a set Form of Prayer heretofore declared and now more fully enlarged and confirmed with the concurrence of the Votes of such eminent persons who are so esteemed by the contrary-minded THis Subject hath been so sufficiently discussed and determined by others that no new thing can be expected from me onely you have here the Judgement and Approbation of this eminent Primate which being of so great esteem with all good men 't is possible now upon near an even scale of mens opinions in it his may be of that weight as to give satisfaction First that the Vse of a set Form of Prayer is not a setting up of any new doctrine as the Athenians judged of Saint Paul appeares in that 't is the practise of the Belgick Churches for which ye have the determination of the Divines of Leyden Polyander Rivetus Walaeus Thysius in their (a) Disput 36. de cultu invocat Sect. 33. non tantum licitas sed valde utiler esse contendimus c. in magnis conventibus atientio auditorum per usitatas formulas non parum juvatur Synopsis Theologiae And the resolution of Mr. Aimes our countryman who lived and died a Professor of Divinity among them in his cases of conscience who saith 't is (b) Licitum hoc esse manifestum est ex approbata sanctorum praxi quam in praescriptis Psalmis benedicendi formulis scriptura nobis commendat Vtile etiam necessarium est quibusdam istiusmodi formam sequi quamvis ex libelloisit denotanda l. 4. cap. 17. de oratione mentali vocali lawfull from the approved practice of the Saints in the Psalmes and other Formes of blessing in the Scripture nay profitable and necessary for some though it be read out of a book Then for the judgement and practice accordingly of the Reformed Church of France Ludovicus Capellus gives us a sufficient account of who is Professor of Divinity in the University of Somer in one of his Theses lately published de Liturgiae formulis conceptis or a set form of a Liturgie where after hee hath answered all the pretended arguments against it which it seemes he had gleaned up out of some of our English Writers of late he concludes (a) Vbi sunt e●uditi Pastores S. Liturgiae publica formula est apprimè utilis necessaria ad communem Ecclesiae aedificationem c. earum usus jure damnari ●on potest nec debet cum semper ubique in universa Ecclesia Christiana toto terrarum orbe jam à plusquam 1300 annis perpetuo obtinuerit etiamque hodie ubique obtineat nisi apud nov●tios c. Donec tandem nuperimè exorti sunt in Anglia c. de Liturg. concept form pa●s 3. that 't is very necessary both for the most learned Pastors and congregations as unlearned and the edification of both being used throughout the Christian world in all ages at least for these 1300 years and is still at this day in all places excepting only as he saith some of late with us in England whose censure of them is so severe that it would be offensive in me to repeat it And surely the general custome and practice of the reformed Churches which Saint Paul urgeth 1 Cor. 11.16 cap. 14.33 cannot be contemned by any sober Christian unto which may be added the judgement of diverse pious and eminent men of onr own nation and so esteemed by such as have asserted the contrary whose judgements being too large to be inserted here I shall deferre them till the last who do very fully concurre with the Primate in it Calvin was a wise and learned man now as Beza tells us it was his constant practice to use a set form of Praier before Sermon without alteration So was it his advice in his Epistle to the Protector of England in Edward the sixth's time which hath bin mentioned elsewhere for the establishing of a set form of a Liturgy here from which it might not be lawfull for pastors to depart both for the good of the more ignorant preventing of an affected novelty in others and the declaring of an unanimous consent in all the Churches For which practice and advice he had sufficient warrant from the President of the Ancient