Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	lord_n	majesty_n	privy_a	3,637	5	10.0613	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40807	Libertas ecclesiastica, or, A discourse vindicating the lawfulness of those things which are chiefly excepted against in the Church of England, especially in its liturgy and worship and manifesting their agreeableness with the doctrine and practice both of ancient and modern churches / by William Falkner.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.	1674 (1674)	Wing F331; ESTC R25390	247,632	577

Libertas Ecclesiastica OR A DISCOURSE Vindicating the lawfulness of those things which are chiefly excepted against in the Church of England especially in its LITVRGY and WORSHIP And manifesting their agreeableness with the Doctrine and practice both of Ancient and Modern Churches By WILLIAM FALKNER Preacher at St. Nicholas in Lyn Regis LONDON Printed by J. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1674. IMPRIMATUR Jan. 23. 167● ● Sam. Parker TO The most Reverend Father in God Gilbert by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please your Grace YOur Grace being a Person of such singular Eminency in the Church of England I humbly crave leave to present to your hands this following Discourse which contains a Vindication of the Publick Worship of our Church from those Exceptions which by Dissenters have been made against it And the main Design of this Treatise being to promote Christian Vnity by representing the evil consequences of such unnecessary Discords and Schisms and the great unreasonableness of those pretences which have been alledged for their Justification it will n●t I hope be judged incongruous that it should address it self to your Grace whose high Office in the Church tendeth to advance the Vnity thereof and entitleth you to the publick Patronage of Peace and Truth I cannot doubt your Graces approbation of this design which is at all times useful but more especially in this present Juncture of Affairs if God please to grant success which is my earnest prayer For as all good men who prefer Truth and the sincere practice of Piety before their own prejudices wills and passions cannot but approve of such honest endeavours to rectifie mistakes and compose the minds of men to peace so all who are pious and wise cannot but discern a greater necessity and a more particular obligation at this time to silence all these little janglings and quarrels if they have any respect to the main interest and concerns of the Reformed Profession And I hope My Lord that the late Alarum we had from our common Enemies may open mens eyes to see the mischief of rending the Church into so many Factions and may dispose them to receive just and reasonable satisfaction And though what hath been excellently performed by former Writers upon this Subject be sufficiently satisfactory yet my labour herein may not be wholly useless considering the humour of this Age which is more apt to read new Books than to seek for old ones But though the cause I have undertaken deserves your Graces Patronage yet my own personal defects might justly have discouraged me from presenting this discourse to one of so high Dignity and so great a Judgment had not the cause it self been so good that it needed no Art and Colours to set it off but is sufficiently justified when it is rightly represented and understood and your Graces Candour and Clemency so well known as to encourage me to hope for a favourable Acceptance which is the only thing I beg in this humble Address unto your Grace favourably to accept of this small Present from him who unfeignedly prayeth for your Graces prosperity and is intirely devoted to the service and interest of Truth and Peace and Humbly honoureth your Grace with all due Observance W. Falkner THE PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader THE design of this discourse being to remove or at least to allay those fierce contentions about the external forms of worship to which we owe all those unhappy Schisms which good men so heartily bewail it was necessary in order to this end to rectifie those mistakes and prejudices which abuse well-minded men who have not throughly consider'd things and to correct those corrupt passions that quarrelsom and contentious humour which perverts others To these two causes we owe most of our present disorders it is too evident what hand the latter of these has had in them while divers Persons wanting a due sense of the evil and danger of these discords and a due regard to the Peace and Unity of the Church have been too zealous and forward to maintain and promote such dissensions thereby to serve the Interest of their own parties and to oppose the settlement of the Church upon sure and lasting principles now I had no other way of dealing with these men but to convince them of the great evil of such contentions and how much it is the duty of every Christian to study Peace and Unity For there is nothing more evident than that mens minds are strangely byassed by their affections and Interests and clouded by passion and therefore while they are so peremptorily resolved upon their way while they are so fond of their own Inventions while they are devoted to the service of a Party and account those men their Enemies who should rule and govern them and inform them better there is no expectation that reason and argument should prevail with them And if those arguments which I have made use of for this purpose should be effectual to calm the passions of men and to work in them a Christian and peaceable temper of mind I can easily foretel the success of my following discourse the design of which is to rectifie those mistakes and misapprehensions which some men labour under which either concern the particular Rites and offices of our Church or the General rule of duty or Ecclesiastical liberty by which the Church must be directed and guided in matters of order The first hath occasion'd various exceptions against some Rites and Ceremonies and particular passages in our forms of Prayer and I have spent great part of this Treatise in answering such objections by which I hope it will appear what little reason there is to disturb the Peace of the Church and to separate from our Communion upon such pretences Concerning the General Rule which ought ever to be observed in the Church about matters of order there are some who will allow nothing except some few circumstances to be determined by the Authority of the Church unless it be directly enjoined by a particular divine Institution and for a more plausible colour they reject all such rules of order or regular administration under the terms of unscriptural conditions of Communion But in answer to this I have made it appear to be an unjust and unreasonable exception against the establisht order of any Church that there are some things determined and appointed by the Authority of Superiours which have always been accounted of an Indifferent nature and are indeed the proper matters of Ecclesiastical Liberty And I hope I have abundantly proved to the satisfaction of all sober inquirers that prudent and well ordered Ecclesiastical Constitutions and appointments for the promoting order and decency and the advancement of Religion and Piety are very allowable and unblameable nay that it is impossible that

haec ut plurimum adhibetur formula I say after this was established at Geneva Calv. Ep. 87. Calvin who composed it expressed his judgment to be for the strict use of set forms in his Letter to the Lord Protector in England Wherein he writeth to this purpose For so much as concerneth the form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical rites valde probo I much approve that it be determined so that it may not be lawful for the Ministers in their administrations to vary from it And this he judgeth necessary for these reasons that it may be an help to the weakness of some that it may be a testimony of the Churches consent and that it may slop the desultorious levity of those who are for new things 12. And these very expressions of Calvin are cited with great approbation by the Walachrian Classis of Zealand in what they wrote in the time of our late Wars to the Assembly at London and they further declare their great distast against them who condemn the use of forms in these words Consid Contr. in Angl. c. 7. qu. 2. Durum putamus omnes illas pias Ecclesias condemnare quae ab Apostolicis primitivae Ecclesiae temporibus usque ad hodiernum diem cultum Dei publicum ex praescriptis certisque formulis celebrarunt pr●inde hominum illorum praecisam singularitatem arguimus qui omnes praescriptas formulas ex cultu divino eliminant Say they We account it grievous to condemn all those holy Churches which from the Apostolical times and the primitive Church unto this day have celebrated the publick worship of God out of prescribed forms Wherefore we blame the precise singularity of those men who would cast out all prescribed forms from divine worship So they And indeed it must be a rash sentence to condemn forms of Prayer as evil and sinful which were embraced by the ancient Church while it retained its soundness and before the corruptions and distempers of the Church of Rome took place and by the Protestant Churches since their recovery there from And in the determining what is expedient or inexpedient he had need have strong foundations to erect his high confidence upon who will oppose his own judgment with some very few persons besides against the concurrent judgment and practice of the Church of Christ in so many several Ages and Nations and against the determination of God himself under the Old Testament and our blessed Saviour under the New SECT II. Objections against set forms answered 1. What is opposed against the former Section must be here considered both concerning the antiquity lawfulness and expediency of set forms It is acknowledged that publick Prayer even at the Celebration of the Holy Communion was at the beginning of Christianity performed by the extraordinary and wonderful effusion of the gifts of the Holy Ghost when also prophesying and singing were performed by the same But some attempt hath been made to prove that there was no ordinary use of forms of Prayer in the three first Centuries and that they were not established till the end of the fourth Century 2 To this purpose Justin Martyr is first produced Apol. 2. prope fin p. 98. who declareth concerning his time that at the Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief Minister sendeth forth Prayers and Thanksgivings according to his ability or rather with all his might Now all the proof here dependeth on the use of the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Objectors understand according to his ability in composing a Prayer But this is a sense not consistent with the use of the same Phrase in another place of the same Apology where he discourseth also of their Prayers at the Eucharist p. 60. and speaketh of all Christians who were not all to compose Prayers according to their ability for that service that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praising God with Prayers and Thanksgivings with all their might that is with the greatest intention and fervency of heart and spirit and this is properly the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as may be evinced from the use thereof in other places and from the use of like expressions referring to Prayer 3. It was Nazianzens exhortation Naz. Orat. 3. Let us being cleansed in soul and body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all our might sing that song which the Israelites sung when the Egyptians were destroyed where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies affectionateness and earnestness of mind in the use of a set form of words Lex Rab. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buxtorf noteth it as an expression used among the Jews that he who shall say Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all his might which answereth to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gates of Paradise shall be opened to him but here could be no variety of expression but as he interpreteth it by this Phrase is meant omni intentione devotione a joining with all earnestness of intention and heartiness of devotion Linw. Prov. l. 3. Tit. 23. Sect. 1. About 450. years since was framed an English Canon requiring the daily publick Prayers and service to be performed religiously prout Deus dederit and again prout Deus inspiraverit which are Phrases as plausible and pregnant as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet these Phrases were used concerning the set diurnal and nocturnal offices requiring that they should behave themselves therein with Religious devoutness according as God should give them ability and breath by his spirit Wherefore this citation from Justin Martyr though managed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or with the utmost might will prove nothing but the weakness of the attempt of the Vndertakers 4. Another place objected is from Tertullian Apol. c. 30. who saith the Christians did pray sine monitore quia de pectore without a monitor or prompter because from their heart The sense of these words of Tertullian hath been variously apprehended by divers learned men some judging that they intend praying by heart as we call it and therefore by a form others that they expressed the readiness of Christians to put up hearty and devout supplications to God Bishop Bilson of Christian subjection Part. 4. from the Religious inclinations of their own spirits and some very worthy men have thought that sense of these words which is closed with in the management of this objection not to be improbable concerning Tertullians time And it is not much of be wondred if some obscure Phrases of so dark a Writer as Tertullian be either not well understood or sometimes misunderstood among this number I account this Phrase which I suppose to refer to an ancient custom in the Primitive Church But 5. In answer to this objection it might be sufficient to observe that sine monitore can in no propriety of speech be construct without a form since the Monitor must needs be a person not a Book whose words were to guide and