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	finger_n	26	3	10.8041	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47748	Liturgy's vindicated by the dissenters, or, The lawfulness of forms of prayer and liturgies proved from the very texts of Scripture urged against them by John Bunyan and the dissenters / by the author of the Religious conference between a minister and his parishioner about infant baptism.	Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.	1700 (1700)	Wing L1137; ESTC R34970	43,840	127

the Vulgar most of their Prayers are presented to the Virgin Mary and to other Saints and Angels all our Prayers are offer'd up to God through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and with how many and to say no worse burdensome Ceremonies Baptism and the Lords Supper is Administred among them And with how few and Significant ones those Sacraments are Celebrated by us all which make a vast Difference between the Common Prayer and Mass Book any one will easily find that has leisure and opportunity to Compare them both together 4ly How does J. Bunyan know that St. Paul never composed a Form of Prayer The sound Words he commands Timothy to hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 might for ought he can prove to the contrary be such a Form himself allows the Form of Godliness which the same Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 3.5 to have respect to a Form of Prayer as I shall shew hereafter and is there not as good reason that this Form of sound Words should likewise regard Prayer And if it does we may thence infer that St. Paul made such a Form for the Church and commanded Timothy to hold fast the same by using it therein however this be we may be sure St. Paul used a Form of Prayer himself even that of Christ's own composing Luke 11.2 when ye pray say our Father c. and he taught others to use it also or else he could not have kept a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man neither would he have declared unto his People the whole Council of God as he protests he had done Acts 20.27 and Chap. 24.16 and if St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles used no other Form of Prayer it was because they were assisted by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost and had miraculous Gifts bestowed upon them such as the gift of Tongues of Prophesie of Healing c. and so did not stand in need of it and let John Bunyan and his Party prove they have the like wonderful Gifts and can work the like stupendious Miracles and they shall be dispensed with in the use of the Common Prayer Book but if none of those extraordinary Gifts and Miracles can be truly pretended to by them then I think they need the help of such a Form of sound Words as well as we and this has been the constant Judgment of the Church of God in all Ages since those Miracles ceased and therefore did she at first establish Liturgies and has always used them if not in at least ever since the Apostles Days Page 31 our Author is very witty and says But here the wise Men of our Days are so well skill'd as that they have both the Matter and Manner of their Prayers at their Fingers end setting such a Prayer for such a Day and that twenty Years before it comes one for Christmas another for Easter and six Days after that they have also bounded how many Syllables must be said in every one of them at their publick Exercises for each Saints Day also they have them ready for the Generations yet unborn to say All this which is meer Banter must pass for an invincible Argument to overthrow our whole Liturgy at once and every Collect therein but such as it is we will examine it and shew the absurdity and folly of it 1st This Man does not shew his wisdom in pretending we make Prayers for certain Days twenty Years before they come since those very Days happen all within the compass of One Year and therefore there cannot be the distance of twenty Years between them and the making such particular Prayers and if it be said that these Prayers are repeated for more than twenty Years one after another we may answer there is good reason for it that as often as such solemn times return we should suit our publick Prayers and Praises according to such solemn Occasions having the Example of God himself and his Servant Moses to justifie our Practice for by the Divine appointment the Priests under the Law were confin'd to a Form of Words in blessing the People which they were always to pronounce when they dismissed the Assembly Numb 6.22 23 24 25 26. the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying unto them the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his Face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee Peace in which one Blessing wherein the name of Jehovah or Lord is thrice repeated we are taught the great mystery of our Christian Faith even the Trinity in Vnity or the three Persons and one God it being the peculiar property of God the Father to bless and keep us of God the Son to be gracious unto us and of God the Holy Ghost to give us Peace as * See his Com. on Num. pag. 109. Dr. Patrick has observed to the like form of Words was Moses himself confin'd as often as the Ark moved and rested in the Wilderness Numb 10.35 36. When the Ark set forward Moses said rise up O Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee and when the Ark rested he said return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel and by the same divine Institution the Jewish People were obliged to a set form of Words in praying to God and praising his Name when they offer'd their first Fruits Deut. 26.5 6 7 8 9 10. Thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous and the Egyptians evil entreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard Bondage and when we cried unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord heard our Voice and looked on our Affliction and our Labour and our Oppression and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty Hand and out stretched arm and with great terribleness and with Signs and with Wonders and he hath brought us unto this Place and hath given us this Land even a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey and now behold I have brought the first Fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given me The like Form of Words were they obliged to use in the Offering of their Tythes Deut. 26.13 14 15. Thou shall say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the hallowed things out of my House and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my Mourning neither have I taken ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the

Dead but I have harkened to the Voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me look down from thy holy Habitation from Heaven and bless thy People Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swearest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey And both these Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving were the Jewish People constantly to observe twice every Year in all succeeding Generations when they offer'd their first Fruits and Tythes before the Lord but according to John Bunyan's bantering way he would expose them thus The Wise Men of Moses his Days with himself the Priests and People were so well skill'd that they had both the matter and the manner of their Prayers at their Fingers end seting such a Prayer for such a Day and that twenty Years before it comes one for the Day wherein they Offered their First-fruits another for the Day wherein they Offered their Tythes they have also bounded how many Syllables must be said in every one of their Prayers at their publick Exercises for each of these Offering Days they have them ready for the Generations yet unborn to say so that if there be any weight in this way of Arguing it will cast as much disgrace upon the Prayers of Moses which yet were Dictated and Directed by the infinite Wisdom of Almighty God as upon the Prayers of the Church of England which were also Composed by the same Spirit If it be said that Moses the Jewish Priests and People had not the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we have and therefore they were tyed to Forms from which we are now set free I Answer or rather John Bunyan does it for me p. 53 You do not find any Words of Prayer that we read of come out of the Mouth of Moses when he was going out of Egypt and was followed by Pharaoh Ex. 14.15 and yet he made Heaven ring again with his Cry but it was the inexpressible and unsearchable Groans and Cryings of his Soul in and with the Spirit And this he repeats p. 75. so that by our Adversaries own Confession Moses had the Spirit and could Pray by it even in their Sense as well at least as any Gifted Brother of them all and yet this very Moses sometimes used a Form of Prayer himself and also prescribed a Form of Prayers for others even the Jewish Priests and People to be constantly observed by them on solemn Occasions and on such particular Days and Seasons of the Year 2dly Those two great solemn Festivals which my Author mentions as observ'd by our Church Christmas and Easter have good Authority for their Observation even in the New Testament for can we have better Warrant for our keeping Christmas-Day than the Holy Angels keeping of it in a full Quire as they did Luke 2.13 and suddenly there was with the Angel i. e. who brought the Shepherds the joyful News of Christ's Birth a Multitude of the Heavenly Host Praising God and saying and they did it all in the same Form Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace and good Will towards Men. Now What other Reason can there be given why so many if not all the Angels should be present on Earth at this time and unanimously Worship God except it were to teach us to set apart this Day in all future Ages for a Day of Thanksgiving to God for the greatest Mercy was afforded the World since the Creation even the Birth and Incarnation of the Saviour of it Well may we keep Christmass-Day our Humane Nature being assum'd into the Godhead and a Saviour being Born to us upon it which is Christ the Lord When the Holy Angels kept this Day whose Nature he did not assume and to whom he was not Born a Saviour as he was to us I shall say no more in behalf of this great Festival but Transcribe a Passage out of the Assemblies Annotations on this portion of Scripture Luke 2. 13. ‖ See the Assemblies Annotations on Luke 2.13 Thus God would say they have this publick Service for so their Multitude made it performed by all who have Knowledge of and Interest in the Birth of Christ as to manifest his Mercy and Truth so to Condemn their stupid Ingratitude who perversely refuse to joyn in this Duty as if general Precepts in Gods Word right Reason and the Examples of Men and Angels inspired by Gods Spirit chosen Witnesses of of our Saviours Nativity and for this same purpose sent by God himself from Heaven that they might thus Celebrate that Day were not sufficient Warrant to lead them to Imitation and joining in an Holy Harmony with them And as for our keeping Easter Day can we have better Authority than St. Pauls Command for it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast i.e. Easter which is our Christian Passover that comes in the room of the Jewish not with the old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness which is a plain Allusion to some of the Typical Ceremonies wherewith the Israelites kept their Passover and proves that we Christians should keep Easter with the substance of those Types even the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth i. e. in a pious Preparation for and devout Participation of the Lords Supper in a Death to Sin and a Resurrection to newness of Life Yet besides this Scriptural Argument I shall add one Consideration more and that is King Charles the Martyrs Quaery propounded to the Parliaments Commissioners at Holdenby April 23. 1647. I desire to be resolved of this Question Why the new Reformers discharge the keeping of Easter The Reason of this Quaery it I conceive the Celebration of this Feast was Instituted by the same Authority which changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lords Day or Sunday for it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept or turned into the Sunday wherefore it must be the Churches Authority that Changed the one and Instituted the other therefore my Opinion is that those who will not keep this Feast may as well return to the Observation of Saturday and refuse the weekly Sunday when any Body can shew me that herein I am in an Error I shall not be ashamed to confess and amend it till when you know my Mind C. R. Lastly As to the Observation of Saints Days those Men have no Reason to upbraid us with it who every Year keep their Festival Days in Memory of the Seiges and prosperous Rebellion they rais'd and maintain'd against their rightful Soveraign Indeed had they Fought for him and been preserv'd and deliver'd in so Just and Loyal a Cause to have kept an Anniversary Day in Remembrance of it wou'd have been a justifiable Practice and so it is to observe those few Saints Days whose Memory our Church requires us once a Year to Celebrate having the like Authority