Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	bless_v	fellowship_n	25	3	10.0579	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89681	An apology for the discipline of the ancient Church: intended especially for that of our mother the Church of England: in answer to the Admonitory letter lately published. By William Nicolson, archdeacon of Brecon.	Nicholson, William, 1591-1672.	1658 (1658)	Wing N1110; Thomason E959_1; ESTC R203021	282,928	259

pious performances as stinted worship Quiristers singing of Psalms with all the Rubrique postures I could forgive you the rest because you acknowledge these performances to be pious for if they had piety in them I see no reason why you or any body else have cause to note them for corruptions But when I came to this place I entred into debate with my self which part of Solomons counsel I should take whether I should answer or not answer Not to answer Dr. Bancroft Featly Hammond Fulke Taylour Hooker Prideaux Preston might give you occasion to boast I could not And to answer was to say over again that which hath been so often sayd by worthy and learned men whom if you have not consulted you are to blame and I wish you would if you have and are not satisfied I fear my labour will be lost However I shall set before you what they have said before me And first I shall speak to your stinted worship 1. And here give me leave first to ask you to what you referre this word stinted whether you strictly restrain it to the word worship or to the Spirit by which we are to worship If to the first I see you are against all set forms of worship if to the last that you think the Spirit is restrained by these set forms And because both are said by your party I shall answer to both and to the last first These conceiv'd forms are either premeditate or extempore if premeditate then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceiv'd forms as by any forme conceiv'd by the Church But if extempore then the Spirit only of him that makes the prayer is left at liberty for the whole Congregation is by that means as much stinted and bound to a set forme to wit of those words the Minister conceivs as if he read them out of a book And is not the Spirit restrain'd when the Congregation shall be confined to the forme of this one mans composing If this be not stinted worship if this be not to stint the Spirit I know not what it is And I can see but one way to avoid it that every one in the Congregation conceive and offer up a prayer with his own spirit and not be forced and confin'd to the Ministers single dictate this would preserve entirely that liberty of the Spirit you pretend that other will not To this if you will not yield as I know you will not it lies upon you to answer the objection which I never saw yet done 2. As for set forms of prayer which I conceive you principally intend by stinted worship I shall next endeavour to justifie them upon many grounds 1. In the old Testament we find set forms of blessing and thanksgiving and prayers appointed by God himself He it was that fram'd to his Priests the very words with which they were to blesse the people Numb 6.23.24 25 26. Numb 10.35.36 2 Chron. 29.30 Exod. 15. Selden in Eutychium Speak to Aaron and his Sonnes saying in this wise shall ye blesse the people The Lord blesse and keep thee c. At the remove of the Arke a forme is set and taught the Priests exurgat Deus dissipentur inimici At the Arks return a form Return O Lord into thy resting place Hezekiah prescribed to the Priests to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the Seer Moses Hymn for the overthrow of Pharaoh is extant and in the same chapter taken up and sung by Miriam which afterward grew a part of the Jewish ordinary Church Liturgy for such they had being instituted by Ezra and the Consistory What should I tell you that the 92. Psalm is a Psalm compos'd for the Sabbath The 20. Psalm to be sung by the people when the King went forth to battaile The 113. to the 118. the great Hallelujah 13. whole Psalms or as some say 15. viz. from 119. to 134. Songs of degrees Moller Ames Musculut in Ps 21. because upon every one of the steps which were 15. betwixt the peoples court and the Temple the Priests made a stay and sung one of these Psalms and the 21. Psalm composed by David to be sung by the people for the King when he came home with victory Yea but say some this was in the infancy and minority of the Church as children then they needed their Festra's as infirm bodies their crutches but now under the Gospel it is otherwise we have more light and gifts of the Spirit than they had True more light we have because the Mystery kept secret from the beginning of the world is more clearly revealed to us then it was to them but that 's not the question prove they should if they speak to the purpose that we have now more ability to compose a prayer then they had more of the Spirit of Grace and supplications Men may have a high conceit of their own abilities but I suppose no wise man will conceive but that Aaron and his sonnes Moses and the Priests Hezekiah and the Levites had as great an ability to pray ex tempore as great a measure of the Spirit of grace and supplications as any man that now lives and yet they used and prescribed set forms Their minority then was in respect of the object of faith not in respect of the spirit of supplications These men therefore shew themselves children to talke of Festra's and cripples in their understanding to talk of crutches since those mens legs were far stronger then theirs and their graces of the Spirit far beyond any Enthusiasts in these days We may think of these forms as meanly as we please but Chrysostome was of another judgement Chrysost Hom. 1. of prayer for thus he begins one of his Homilies of prayer For two reasons it becomes Gods servants to wonder and blesse him both for the hope we have in their prayers and that preserving in writing the Hymns and Orisons they offer'd to God with fear and joy they have deliver'd to us their treasure that so they might draw all posterity to their zeale and imitation Yea but the Spirit must teach us to pray it helps all our infirmities 't is the promise of God to his Church I will poure upon them the Spirit of Grace and supplications Zach. 12.10 And all this may be done in a set forme as well as by any extempore prayer True it is the Spirit must teach us to pray both for matter and forme for we know not what to ask and must teach us how to pray for we know not how to ask zeal and fervour and faith and perseverance and importunity all necessary affections in every supplicant are gifts of the Spirit and groans and sighs proceed from the Spirit he moves the heart first to supplicate brings a man to see in what a wretched case he is one that by his sins hath pierced the Son of God therefore to deprecate ask pardon deprecentur

a blasphemer of God a hinderer or slanderer of his Word an Adulterer or be in malice or envy or in any other grievous crime bewail your sinne and come not to this holy Table c. and in charity he is bound to believe seeing he cannot search the heart that he who after this admonition comes is a true penitent And therefore from hence there can arise no pollution 'T is possible indeed evil company may draw to an imitation of sinne and so pollute But if not so for I know no good man will therefore be profane because a profane man is admitted to the Sacrament the very keeping company with them in these sacred meetings is far from being a sin It is only a clear acknowledgment that they are of the number of the redeemed whereof yet some are damned 2 Pet. 2.1 then that they joyne with them in the profession of Christianity which certainly I may do with all Professours lastly a confederating in vow to live a Christian and sincere life and that I may lawfully do in the company of them that are not sincere And for this practice I conceive we have the Apostles example among the Corinthians 1 Cor. 5. 1 Cor. 3.3 of whom there were fornicatours incestuous carnal persons and yet I read of the incestuous only excommunicate with him they might not eat with the rest they are not prohibited from which I conclude that to communicate with such is not unlawful in a Christian Church And to make this point yet more clear if to communicate with profane person be unlawful because their sinful company would pollute it is because the sin is patent or latent because it is open and notorious say they but this is a strange thing that in natura peccati an open sin should have a stronger infection in it than that which is secret it is as if you should say that plague-sore will lesse infect which is hid and kept secret than that which is discovered no no secret or known is all one if per se the sinne that is not consented to nor imitated infects another only by the approach Hypocrisie a hidden sinne shall as much pollute as any notorious wickednesse and then God be merciful to all Communicants since it is not possible but that in the purest Church they may approach the Lords Table with hypocrites The pollution then which is so much feared by admittance of scandalous and notorious sinners to the Lords Table is no intrinsecal pollution which cannot be while a mans own conscience is not defiled Nor is it a bare pollution by evil example for so the good are not defiled But a pollution or defilement there is which is meerly extrinsecal to this businesse wherewith the whole Church and fellowship may be said to be stained discredited disgraced by scandalous and notorious sinners which was imputed by Celsus a Heathen to Christian Religion that it admitted all sorts Publicans sinners Harlots That then such spots and blemishes be not suffered to the disparagement and danger of the whole body Christ hath provided us a remedy he hath left the power of the Keys with the Governours of the Church that they may exclude from thence all inordinate walkers and proclaim to all that Christianity is not a doctrine of security licentiousnesse and impunity to all profane persons and impenitents but of strict precise and exact purity and holinesse and therefore when Christs Name is or may be blasphemed and evil-spoken of for such Miscreants to recover her own reputation and the good name of Christian Religion and to warn and admonish others not to incur her displeasure she ejects them and debars them though not from their right yet from the use of their right in the Ordinances Which is not done lest the good should be polluted by their presence among the profane as they that toucht the unclean thing were polluted under the Law which is the common errour of the proud fastidious Pharisees of all ages but for those ends I named the recovery of the Churches honour and a fair caveat to others And for the execution of this Discipline it is that all those former alledged places of the Apostle tend purge out the old leaven c. In which the Scripture commands excommunication that is an exclusion from the Church and society of the faithful in general therefore from the Sacrament also If then you shall now ask me who are to be excluded at Christs Supper Feast I answer briefly 1. None but those whose incapacity is either natural or moral as children Idiots distracted persons 2. Non● but such who are under the censures of the Church iuridicè convicted under two or three Witnesses 3. All other professours of the visible Church must not be de●●●ered from their right nor use of their right by any single Minister bec●●se the power of the Keyes was not committed to him but 〈◊〉 the Governours of the Church yet we require in him so much pray that in prudence discretion and charity to the soul of a scandalous and notorious person he withdraw the Sacrament from 〈◊〉 for a time till he give in evidence of his amendment So that you see our labour is to admit to Christs Supper Feast such as in the judgment of charity we are bound to take for Christs faithful friends and followers because we finde no Church conviction to the contrary nor can till they renounce their profession we deliver it to none but such whom we are perswaded may be fed and physick'd by it of which two you may read if you please at full in my explanation of the Chatechisme à pag. 200. ad pag. 204. Thus have I considered of your whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I might well have passed over because you directly impute not these corruptions to the Parochial but insinuate them only which is flily to disprove them But I was willing to remove out of your way every straw at which you might stumble So careful I have been to reduce you to a right understanding in these things and if I may obtain my end I shall think my pains well bestowed However I have done what I could and I leave the successe to God Your Letter calls upon me to follow you and so I am unwillingly drawn for I finde it thus by you written The words of the Letter YEt the meer sight of a Monarchical Pue to stand in the stead of a Ministerial Pulpit is a strong plea of a strange Apostacy from the commendable practice of the primitive Christians Your adversative particle Yet made me start for I must tell you that I understand so much in act that when it follows any long concession as it doth in this place it intimates that all things were light that went before in comparison of that which followeth he being but little versed in the Art of Rhetorick who will grant to his Adversary any thing of which he cannot make his advantage This