Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	prayer_n	read_v	word_n	2,960	5	4.5557	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90361	The English Episcopacy and liturgy asserted by the great refomers abroad, and the most glorious and royal martyr the late King his opinion and suffrage for them. Published by a private gentleman for the publique good.	Peirce, Edmund, Sir, d. 1667.	1660 (1660)	Wing P1062; Thomason E1032_10; ESTC R208951	27,962	48

who though under a quite contrary pretence and zealous shew of detesting Popery and Superstition yet acted the part of the stoutest and most dangerous Champions to introduce it as that Age could any way have afforded Certainly that Liturgy and form of Divine worship must needs be very neer the Golden Mean and no lesse blessed and happy in its composure whose fate it hath alwayes been to be crucified between two grand contrary opposing partyes and stigmatized with their several Characters the one branding it for Novelty and Heresy the other for Superstition and Popery And this no doubt but was fore-seen by the Reformers whose great wisdome and piety in their labours therein can never be enough Admired and Celebrated they stoutly and piously flinging off all both in that and the doctrine of the Church which had any tincture or savour of Superstition or Popery in it and with as little outward alteration which was their singular wildome and discretion as such an affair could possibly admit keeping and Retaining all recommended and practised by pure Antiquity And which doubtlesse is as free and cleer from any true charg of Popery as any period expressed in the writings of such who have laid that heavy charg upon it they knowing well that Liturgy Moderation Charity and as neer a compliance as possibly might be admitted without Sin was a far better and more probable way to convert Papists and confirm Protestants than Sequestration Directory and Ordination by Presbyters only Nor did they forget that there were many thousands of Parishes in this Realm and Nation where there is no such promise of Divine inspiration to be relyed on But that in all probability many of the Minsters will not be alwayes able publiquely to speak as in the presence of Angels which the woeful experience of the late times hath abundantly verifyed to us To say nothing of the flat and empty Nonsence and hydeous Blasphemies the expression whereof had they been duly collected in all places would surely fill a volume and are far more fit to be buryed in utter Oblivion than that it should arrive at the ears of Posterity to accuse the Rashnesse and Folly of such persons who would needs thrust out the unwearyed Labours Piety and Wisdom of so many Glorious Martyrs and instead thereof bring in only the extemporary volatile expressions of particular Persons how able soever into the publique Worship and Service of Almighty God refusing the standing Treasures of the Church for help and assistance and making use of such Coyn as is so far from having any stamp upon it as that it is perpetually to be new run and mynted Not remembring or duly considering at least that there were in the Apostles times divers gifts and every Minister had no promise to succeed in all But one in one and another in another gift yet all by the same spirit c. It is believed that Doctor Preston is not without a pretious Memory amongst the chief of such who have opposed Liturgy his observation therefore may not unduly be here hynted which was this That whilst those who in opposition to set forms require the Minister to conceive a Prayer for the Congregation They consider not that the whole Congregation is as much stynted and bound to a set form viz. of those words which the Minister conceives and pronounces as if he read them out of a Book Nor will the prescription of the matter at all help out in this case of unpremeditated and extemporary prayer as some perhaps may think for if that be flown too for refuge and cure of obliquities That remedy proves every whit as bad as the Disease the Spirit being in that case stynted likewise the only thing in pretence to be avoyded The matter prescribed every way as much hindring and obstructing that which they call the Freedome of the Spirit in Prayer as if the very words themselves were confined and prescribed also And whereas this sacred form of Prayer and service of Almighty God and some other rites and usages of the Church have been so much and often accused to savour of Popery and to keep those of the Romish faith in hopes and encouragement of our return to them The quite contrary Argument may certainly with far more reason be thence assumed and taken up It being our complyance with the Antient Church of the purest times and not with them which we practised And our retaining and keeping those antient forms and Rites being a more probable way of gaining them to us than any hopes they could thence have of our coming in to them Nor could such complyance of ours with them so far as any way we lawfully might signifie ought else to any rational Papist But that we meant thereby which questionless is the truth to leave them without all excuse if they did not answer us in the like compliance with us in what they might And so restore the so much desired Peace and Union of Christendom And of this certainly the Jesuits and others amongst them were in such dread and fear that it might be effectually operative upon the moderate sort of Papists here amongst us that none were more mortally hated by them than such as were chief upholders favourers and supporters of that Antient Government Order Rites and Service and the strict rules and prescriptions thereof which they so much feared and were offended at for the cause and reason aforesaid And therefore if Romes Master-Peice a book appointed by the long Parliament to be set out say true The late Glorious King and the then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Laud whose wayes and course in this particular they saw so crosse and opposite to their designes and putting them into such frights of losing all their game prey and Mart here were in particular destined by them to the slaughter as persons questionless whom they not only utterly despaired ever to gain to them but were very likely to endanger the ruine of the whole Roman Cause Others there were too They knew who seemed in Noyse indeed far their greater Enemies yet we never had the least murmure of any such design against any of them though it cannot but be believed such were truly and really their Enemies likewise They knew too well what use to make of their Zeal and discontent And doubtlesse excellent good use might have been made against the Romish designs of such-their Zeal and fervour if they would have permitted it to come under a due and prudent management by those who had just and lawful authority over them I promised brevity and therefore but one word more is to be Craved and although by me but Craved yet it is such as may justly clayman Audience and Regard from and a convincing likewise to the most wilful and obdurate whatsoever in these particulars of Episcopacy and Liturgy It is a word from a King Their own King their own dying King nay Their Martyred King Martyred chiefly upon this very score and accompt

seems they desire nothing more earnestly than to be in the same condition with us which appears by a Declaration made by some Divines of note and esteem in foreign parts and that but few years agoe and since some of our late troubles here amongst us first began which inter alia speaks thus One day when it shall please God to perfect Edit a D. Jobanne Duraeo An. 1638. and confirm Amity in these Churches we may be able by a universal Council and Consent to form a certain Liturgy which may be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord amongst us Some persons 't is true have made it a Malum Discordiae here But we see our neighbours look upon a Liturgy and constant set form of Prayer to be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord to them Nor indeed is there any thing more true than That all the reformed Churches abroad have their certain forms of Prayers for their Publique and Sacred administrations nor is it lesse true That many of the said Churches have Bishops likewise in full order and dignity answerable and correspondent to those of this our Church of England as all those Countries subject to the Crowns of Denmark and Sweden Almost throughout all Germany likewise the Episcopal Order and Degree is kept up and preserved though under another name and Title viz. Super-Intendents and in some places as in Brene the name of Bishops still remains In the large and ample Territories of Bohemia Polonia and Transylvania the Evangelical reformed Churches are Governed by Seniors as they call them who are in the same nature quality and degree and armed with the same power and authority for Church Government as our Bisheps To say nothing of those Churches of Russia Grecia and India and the rest of the world whose Doctrine indeed we lesse know what it is than we do their Discipline it being not unknown that their Church Government there is by Bishops both in quality and Title so that it may well be deemed as a thing very improbable that the Oppugners of Episcopacy and Liturgy here amongst us at home will ever be able to make it appear by all the Art or indeavours that can be used That any approbation countenance or assistance to them in such their design will ever in any way or sort be affoorded to them from abroad especially from any considerable place of the Reformation who are so far from desiring the glory of the English Church heretofore so famous and flourishing in all respects whatsoever and yeelding such protection safety and honour to all their reformed neighbours and allyes in all parts and places should be any way darkened or ecclipsed or its eminency and lustre in any kind diminished or abated That nothing questionlesse hath been is or can be greater matter of Sorrow and Condolement to them than the Ayms Attempts and Desires of some men nor more Joy and Pastime to our Romish Adversaries than to see the Sons and Members of that Church heretofore so terrible and dreadful to them and their Usurpations rending and tearing out their Mothers Bowels and all for controversies of Government Discipline and Ceremony and that without the least shew of ought tending to any need or necessity whatsoever Thus much for a tast only how the Reformed Foreign Palats have and without all doubt still do Rellish that sharpnesse which hath here been used against that Government Order and Discipline which hath so long beautified and rendred glorious that Kings Daughter our Church of England and which had such a beginning continuance and so firm and often repeated an establishment And having made the precedent mention of the great joy and pleasure which our Romish Adversaries no doubt take at these differences here amongst us And since that some persons who perhaps least meant it have indeed which 't is hoped is now become cleer and manifest to them but waged their War and fought their Battails wherein themselves by all their Learning and Policy could never make so great an advance as of late years since our Troubles began Let it be remembred that upon the Reformed Composure of our Liturgy the great quarrel then against it was alwayes made by the Papists which they set on foot under several Modes and Guizes sometimes complaining of that which they called Craft and Subtlety in our Reformers in their seeming complyance with them and how politique they were to order things so as might in shew seem no great departure from them in their publique worship and service of God yet really and indeed they had thereby given them the far more deadly wound and such whereof it would be very difficult for them ever to work out a recovery Sometimes in down right terms they fell upon it being so reformed and reduced to pure Antiquity Insomuch that John Ould in Queen Maries dayes and many others eminent Assertors thereof publiquely wrote against them in Defence of it And Arch-Bishop Cranmer made a Publique Challenge that if he might be permitted to take to him Peter Martyr and 4. or 5. more he would enter the Lists with any Papists living and defend the Book to be perfectly agreable to the word of God and the same in effect which had been used in the Church of God for 1500 yeers And in those fiery dayes of Queen Mary when the use of it was interdicted it was frequently burned as an haeretical peice condemned by Roman Authority in the same Fire with such as suffered Martyrdom for asserting that and other Doctrins and usages of our Church of which there is amongst others this memorable Record in the Acts and monuments of our Church That one Iohn Hullyer fellow of Kings College in Cambridge who being at the stake A book of Comon-Prayer amongst others was thrown into the fire to him and happened to fall between his hands which he received with the greatest joy that could possibly be expressed by him and read in it till the flame and smoak hindred his sight and then he clapt it to his breast closely embracing it and with elevated hands and devout prayers he yeelded up the ghost Arch-Bishop Cranmer before mentioned who amongst other things objected for such asserting the Liturgy c. suffered Martyrdom likewise by the Papists in his letters published by Myles Coverdale laments it as the most cruel and severe piece of persecution and tyranny towards him that they would not suffer him to have the use of the common-Common-Prayer book in Prison What troubles at Frankfort arose to the Reformers flying thither for refuge and by whose fomentation and incouragement they befell and continued amongst them is manifest enough and how learnedly and unanswerably the English Liturgy and every part thereof was there maintained by them against all Opposers whatsoever is as manifest likewise Nor can it be thought a difficult matter to guesse who privately and obliquely excited and encouraged Hacket Coppinger and Arthington in Q. Eliz. time and many others which might be named

the very natural essential liberty of our Souls Yet it should be invalid to be broken in another clause wherein I think My self justly obliged both to God and Man Yet upon this Rack chiefly have I been held so long by some mens ambitious Covetousness and sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civil dissentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I do approve what God knows I utterly dislike and in My Soul abhor as many wayes highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto if I should shamefully and dishonourably give My consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the divided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Episcopacy Nor can My late condescending to the Scots in point of Church-government be rightly objected against Me as an inducement for Me to consent to the like in my other Kingdoms For it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted and setled there as 't is here nor I in that respect so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as in this For what I think in My Judgement best I may not think so absolutely necessary for all places and at all times If any shall impute My yielding to them as My failing and Sin I can easily acknowledge it but that is no Argument to do so again or much worse I being now more convinced in that point Nor indeed hath My yielding to them been so happy and successeful as to incourage Me to grant the like to others Did I see any thing more of Christ as to Meekness Justice Order Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My Judgement to be biassed or forestalled with some prejudice and wontednesse of opinion But I have hitherto so much cause to suspect the contrary in the manners of many of those men that I cannot from them gain the least Reputation for their new wayes of Government Nor can I find that in any Reformed Churches whose patterns are so cryed up and obtruded upon the Churches under My Dominion that either Learning or Religion Works of Piety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in my Kingdoms by Gods blessing which might make Me believe either Presbytery or Independency have a more benign influence upon the Church and mens hearts and lives than Episcopacy in its right constitution The abuses of which deserve to be extirpated as much as the use retained for I think it far better to hold to Primitive and uniform Antiquity than to comply with divided Novelty A right Episcopacy would at once satisfie all just desires and interests of good Bishops humble Presbyters and sober People so as Church-affairs should be managed neither with tyranny parity nor popularity neither Bishops ejected nor Presbyters despised nor People oppressed And in this integrity both of My Judgement and Conscience I hope God will preserve me MEDITATION FOr thou O LORD knowest my uprightnesse and tendernesse as thou hast set Me to be a Defender of the Faith and a Protector of thy Church so suffer Me not by any violence to be over-born against my Conscience Arise O LORD maintain thine own Cause let not thy Church be deformed as to that Government which derived from thy Apostles hath been retained in purest and primitive times till the Revenues of the Church became the object of secular envy which seeks to rob it of all the encouragements of Learning and Religion Make Me as the good Samaritan compassionate and helpful to thy afflicted Church which some men have wounded and robbed others passe by without regard either to pity or relieve As my power is from thee so give Me grace to use it for thee And though I am not suffered to be Master of my other Rights as a King yet preserve Me in that liberty of Reason love of Religion and thy Churches welfare which are fixed in my Conscience as a Christian Preserve from Sacrilegious Invasions those temporal blessings which thy providence hath bestowed on thy Church for thy glory Forgive their sins and errors who have deserved thy just permission thus to let in the wilde Boar and subtile Foxes to waste and deform thy Vineard which thy right hand hath planted and the dew of Heaven so long watered to a happy and flourishing estate O let me not bear the in●amous brand to all Posterity of being the first Christian King in this Kingdom who should consent to the oppression of thy Church and the Fathers of it whose errours I would rather with Constantine cover with silence and reform with meeknesse than expose their persons and sacred Functions to vulgar contempt Thou O LORD seest how much I have suffered with and for thy Church make no long tarrying O my God to deliver both me and it from unreasonable men whose counsels have brought forth and continue such violent confusions by a precipitant destroying the antient boundaries of thy Churches peace thereby letting in all manner of errours schisms and disorders O thou God of order and of truth in thy good time abate the malice asswage the rage and confound all the mischievous devices of thine mine and thy Churches enemies That I and all that love thy Church may sing praises to thee and ever magnifie thy salvation even before the sons of men Concerning the Liturgy his Royal words are these IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary parts and piety must needs undo whatever was formerly settled never so well and wisely So hardly can the pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of wisdom or godliness And because matter of Prayer and Devotion to God justly bears a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the Divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the People than to tell them they served God amisse in that point Hence our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publick advise might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many popular contempts offered to the Book and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Laws in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary vein and fluency or others who conscious to their own formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it and a total re●ection of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadnesse of their hearts As for the matter contained in the Book sober and learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils