Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	form_n	prayer_n	set_a	6,981	5	11.4340	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87871	A discourse of praying with the spirit, and with the understanding. Where of extemporary premeditate set forms of prayer. Preached in two sermons at Hillsborough anno 1659. By Henry Leslie (maugre all antichristian opposition) Bishop of Down and Conner. And now published for the redresse of the great abuse of prayer in that diocesse, whereof he had, and ought to have a charge. Whereunto is annexed a letter of Jer. Taylor, D.D. concerning the same subject.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1660 (1660)	Wing L1162; Thomason E1041_4; ESTC R207928	28,259	45

did belong unto the ceremonial worship and are now abrogated by the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross yet there is a morality in that precept which still bindeth us to offer something unto God in acknowledgment of that homage which we owe unto our Creator and what that is the Psalmist telleth us Psal 50.14 Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high and call upon me c. But they who pray ex tempore bring nothing with them to offer but take it upon a suddain even after they have presented themselves before the Lord. Which must needs be a dough-baked sacrifice unworthy to be offered unto God for he requireth a sacrifice without blemish the very choice of the Flock And when they did offer him the refuse the blinde and the the lame Exod. 29.1 Levit. 22.19 20 21. he bid them offer it unto their Governour Mal. 1.8 And vers 14. he calleth them deceivers which did so and cursed them cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts This reason is full of moral equity God is a great King and therefore look what respect you give unto your prince you must give no less unto him you will not offer unto your prince a naughty thing but the very best in its kind of any thing that you have so that which you offer unto God must be the best even in humane estimate When you are to appear before your Prince you will present your selves with great reverence bowing your selves unto the ground even so we must bow our selves before the most high God saith the Prophet Micah Mic. 6.6 We must worship bow down and kneel before the Lord our maker Psal 95.6 When you are to speak unto your Prince you will deliberate and advise what to say weigh your thoughts and choose your words so you should advise and deliberate what to say when you are to speak unto God and not offer unto him your rude and imperfect conception which you would not offer unto your Governour in a serious matter they who do so have a mean esteem of God for they think any thing good enough for him The very Heathen had more care of their devotions and greater respect to their Paynim Gods for the prayers which they offered unto them were composed with great art and skill And they have too high an esteem of themselves and too great a confidence in their own abilities who dare trust to their own fancy and invention before the Majesty of Heaven 2 Sam. 24.24 He who knoweth God and Himself will know his distance and keep it and neither appear before his God empty nor yet with that which cost him nothing Finally to pray ex tempore especially in publick is against the rule of prudence for he is esteem'd a wiser man who considereth and deliberates before he speak then he who speaketh without any deliberation Solomon saith The heart of the Wise teacheth his mouth Prov. 16.23 His heart teacheth his mouth because he considereth and deliberates what to say So that they who pray without any deliberation are none of Solomons wise men From all this which I have said it evidently followeth that we should studdy and deliberate our prayers especially those which we utter in publick We should fit and prepare our selves to seek the Lord like the bride who maketh her self ready Rev. 19.7 and as the wise Virgins who trimmed their lamps before they went out to meet the bridegroom Math. 25.7 our hearts should first be inditing a good matter before our tongue be the pen of a ready writer And of all premeditated prayers none are so sit for the Church Psal 45.1 as set forms composed by the governors of the Church wherein all may joyn These prayers are most according to the rule of this Text that is with the Spirit and with understanding also with the Spirit for it were strange If the Church should not have the Spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her Children Yea in all reason the publick Spirit is to be trusted before the private for the promise of the Spirit is made unto the Church and especially when her pastors are assembled together And these prayers are most with understanding because most to the understanding of the People In this set forms have the advantage of all other prayers that they are best understood And the Apostle here preferreth praying with understanding before praying with the Spirit so that albeit praying ex tempore were a praying with the Spirit as is pretended but falsely yet were they nothing so convenient for the Church as set forms vvhich are better understood because the People are acquainted with them bear some part in them by their suffrages and answers and so heartily joyn in prayers for which cause it is called Common prayer So it was alwayes in the antient Church Se Just Mart. Apol. 2. Aug. op 118. then the prayers of the Church were not dispatched between the Priest and his Clark as novv in the Church of Rome nor performed by the Minister alone but all the People answered the Priest and so they all prayed and sung together This is the Juge Sacrificium the perpetuall Publick Sacrifice which never Church wanted The Church of the Jewes had their Liturgy vvhich they used Dayly and the Jews even at this day do observe it And the Christian Church from the very beginning had Liturgies and common forms of vvorship Jame the first Bishop of Jerusalem of vvhom you read in the Acts of the Apostles imployed himself so much in composing of Liturgies for the use of the Church that he was called Jacobus Liturgicus So did St. Basill St. Chrisostom St. Ambrose and others Or if you like better the exemple of reformed Churches Mr. Calvin advised all Churches to use such set forms of prayer from which the Ministers might not vary Calv. Ep. 87. ad prot Aug quod al fo●mam precum vituum Eccl siae valde probo ut certa illa excet a qua past nibus in functione sua descedere non liceat tam ut consulatur quorundam Simplicitati imperitis quam ut certius ita conster omnium inter ses Ecclesiarum consensus postremo ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui novationes quasdam affectant and he giveth good reasons for it therefore I will repeat his own words concerning a form of prayer and Ecclesiastical rites I very well like that it be a certain and constant one from which the pastors of the Church may in no wayes depart or vary as well to provide for the simplicity unskilfulness of some as also that the consent of all churches may more certainly be known lastly to meet with the unconstant levity of some Men who affect innovation And so all the reformed Churches as they had their confessions of faith so they had books of Common prayer and administration of Sacraments Even the Church of Scotland albeit their reformation was in times of rebellion brought in by popular fury and so with too much heat opposition against Popery yet they were not then so full of the spirit of Munster but that they used set formes of prayer dayly and never Minister went into a Putpit but before he uttered any words of his own he first read a prayer out of the book containing a general confession of fin T. C. reply And they who at first opposed the liturgy of the Church of England did then protest that they did not not dislike set formes of prayer but approve well of them only they would not approve of that book which came so near to the Romish missals But now we see that the Divil is of an encroaching nature that if we yield him an inch he will take a span For haveing prevailed to have that book laid aside now they will have no set formes at all not so much as the Lords prayer nor any premeditate prayer but will have ministers pour out all their prayers ex tempore And I dare say that the Devill will allow them such prayers for they will never batter his Kingdom but enlarge it For such a forme or rather no forme of worship doth occasion multitude of Schismes in the Church when every one prayeth after his own fashion and in his prayer vents his opinions which are not alwaies according to faith and Godliness there must be as St. Jerome saith Tot Schismata quot Sacerdotes The Milevitan Council above twelve hundred years ago saw this evil and provided against it And the Protestants in France at this day are aware of it For albeit they make little use of a liturgy in their daily ministration save only for Psalmes and Lessons yet in the administration of the Sacraments they bind all Ministers precizely to the words of the book so that if any Minister in France in the administration of either Sacrament should neglect the prayers of the book and conceive prayers of his own he would be deprived For they know well that there can be no unity in religion without some uniformity in worship When all particular congregations communicate in a common forme of worship then is the Church like Jerusalem Psal 122.3 that is built compact together But when every one prayeth after a severall fashion there is as great diversity of tongues as was at the building of Babel That division of tongues was a curse so it is as great blessing of God when the whole Church is unins labii hath as it were but one lip when all do praise God and magnifie him togegether as David required Psal 34.3 God of his infinite mercy grant us this blessing that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God as the Apostle exhorteth us Rom. 15.6 This shall be my prayer while I have any being and let all who love the worship of God and the peace of the Church say Amen

words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others then ten thousand words in an unknown tongue Where he expounds speaking with understanding to be a teaching of others by our voice and he opposeth it to speaking in an unknown tongue So that there can be no doubt of the meaning of these words but that to pray with understanding is to pray so as to be understood Therefore Beza renders it well Precabor intelligentiâ I will pray with intelligence that is to the understanding of others this is indeed the scope and purpose of the Apostle throughout this whole Chapter to shevv that all spirituall gifts should be used to edification for there were at that time divers in the Church of Corinth who having the gift of tongues prayed and sung in an unknown tongue whereby the People were not edified but amazed and the Apostle here corrects the abuse of that gift and will have nothing spoken in the Church but that whereby the Church may receive edifying And if he would not suffer them to pray in an unknown tongue which they had by miracle and special gift of the holy Spirit farr lesse would he suffer men now to pray in an unknown tongue which they have not by miracle or any gift of the Spirit but by their own study and labour They of Corinth did pray with the Spirit though they did not pray with understanding but they of Rome pray neither with the Spirit nor with understanding The Apostle in this Chapter sets himself so much against that practice as if he had seen that which hapned afterwards in the Western Church to have all their prayers in latine after that the Latine tongue ceased to be the known vulgar tongue understood by the People He useth at least eight or nine arguments against it which I cannot now stay to repeat but the summ of them all is this that all things in the Church should be done to edification and so also prayer but no man is edified by hearing that which he understands not This he amplifieth in many words ver 2 6 7 8 9 11 14 16 17 19 26. And indeed disputes so strongly against that practice that the Papists may do well to turn this whole Chapter out of their Bibles as they have done the second commandement out of their primmers for it speaketh clearly against prayer in an unknown tongue And so it was understood by all the antient Fathers and the Church for above six hundred years after Christ did religiously observe the Apostles direction so that all Nations converted to the faith had their prayers in their Common vulgar tongue as have been fully proved by the learned Jewel Artic. 3. of England And the same is confest by many learned Papists Aquinas Aenaeas Sylvius Durand Lyra Eckius and Mr. Harding albeit he strugle hard to instance the contrary yet being overcome by evidence of truth he maketh this confession this was necessary in the primitive Church when the faith was a learning and therefore they had their prayers in a common known tongue Against Jewel Artic. 3. And is it not as necessary now for the faith is still a learning and albeit there be not such need of miracles now as then yet there is as great need of edification therefore let us have a care still to pray with understanding APPLICATION I Have now done with my text and will only labour to bring it home by application that you may perceive what is my drift in this discourse and what is the use that I would have you make of it It is agreed by all Christians that there should be publick prayers in the Church and by all Protestants that these prayers should be in a known vulgar tongue the question that now troubleth us is whether these prayers should be extemporary or premeditate and if premeditate whether the private meditation of the Minister alone or a common known forme wherein all may joyn And if we will admit the Apostle to be Umpire he will afford us a clear determination of that controversie out of this text For certainly that prayer should be used in the Church which is most likely to be both with the spirit and with the understanding but so is not extemporary prayer It is neither with the spirit nor yet with understanding Not with the spirit for I told you before that we cannot now pray by immediate inspiration and in an unknown tongue but by the direction and assistance of the spirit and that the spirit directeth us to pray in the Word and assists us inwardly with his motions But they who pray without advice and consideration cannot follow the direction of the word nor yet promise unto themselves the assistance of the Spirit They cannot follow the directions of the word for to follow that will require some study and deliberation No man can make a thing after a pattern or make one thing like unto another but it will require some study and advise to compare them together and to fit the coppy to the samplar so we cannot make a compleat prayer consisting of confession petitions for things necessary intercessions and giving of thanks and square all these according to the rule of the word but we must take some time to study and advise with the Word for it is not every confession that will please God nor every petition that he will accept of we may err in our prayers and err so dangerously that our prayer be turned into sin as David saith St. James telleth us of many that ask amiss Psal 109. James 4 3. rhe Disciples themselves did it when they desired fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans vvhich was not good The Sons of Zebedee desired to fit one on Christs right hand the other on his left and though that was good yet it was not a thing fit for God to grant If they were not priviledged from error farr lesse are We and therefore vve had need to advise vvell our prayers taking Gods Word for our guide vve should think before we speak and even after that we have thought we must not presume to lay our thoughts upon Gods Altar till first we have vveighed them in the ballanes of the sanctuary As they vvho pray vvithout study and deliberation cannot follovv the directions of the vvord so neither can they promise unto themselves the assistance of the spirit for Gods spirit vvorketh by means and then most assists us vvhen vve most endeavour I shevved unto you before that the spirit in all his other gifts and productions requireth our endeavours and consequently he requireth the same in our prayers and that the Apostle in that place Rom. 8.26 where he speaketh of the spirits helping us to pray useth a word which doth import our own study and labour for it signifieth that he helpeth us in our labours together with him so that if we would have the spirit help us to pray vve