Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n
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A56717
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The work of the ministry represented to the clergy of the Diocese of Ely / by Symon, Lord Bishop of Ely.
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing P867; ESTC R33031
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38,681
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134
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whosoever considers the Condition of the Cities of London and Westminster as they were formerly and as they are now will not despair of Success For before our unnatural Civil War I have been informed by a Reverend Divine there were few Churches in those Cities where daily publick Prayers were read and where they were very few People to joyn with the Minister in them But now there are very few Churches that want them or a Congregation to attend them And though such Assemblies were but thin when this first begun a little after the happy Restauration of our Monarchy and Church yet I my self can witness that their Numbers daily encreased in so much that in some places there are publick Prayers four times a day and good Congregations where in my Memory there were none at all This is a great Encouragment to try what may be done in other great Towns where People are not far distant from the Church Begin with perswasions to come at least upon Litany days And so by degrees they may be induced to wait upon God constantly at his House to make their Prayers and Acknowledgments to him Represent to them frequently how much the publick Service of God excels all that we can perform in Private Because then God appears more glorious in Praises when his People joyn together to set them forth Bid them mark how David and other inspired Persons have in the Book of Psalms stirred up the Affections of the whole Body of God's People to meet together for his Divine Service saying O praise the LORD all ye nations praise him all ye people CXVII 1. O magnify the LORD with me and let us exalt his name together XXXIV 3. Praise ye the LORD Sing unto the LORD a new song and his praise in the congregation of Saints CXLIX 1. Or as it is in the Hymn appointed every day after the second Lesson at Morning Prayer C Psal 4. O go your way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name In short instruct them that every Hallelujah they meet withal in the Holy Scriptures or Praise ye the LORD suppose publick Assemblies to which all the foregoing Exhortation are directed where many met together for Divine Worship not contenting themselves to praise God alone by themselves but with all those who were Members of the same Body with them But if by all your endeavours you cannot bring this to pass yet there is one thing of which I must admonish you that I am sure is in your power It is this That all Priests and Deacons are bound by the Law of this Realm and of this Church to say daily Morning and Evening Prayer privately when they cannot openly Not being let by sickness or some other urgent Cause See the first Rubrick in the Common-Prayer Book after the Preface concerning the Service of the Church Do not fail therefore I beseech you to read the daily Prayers Morning and Evening privately in your own Family That the Divine Service according to Law may be performed daily in every Parish though not every Church There cannot be constantly nor commonly urgent Causes much less Sickness I hope to hinder this And when there is not look upon your selves as bound in Conscience to read the Prayers at home And when you do officiate Publickly on the Lord's Days or other times in the Church let it be in such a solemn manner that it may move the People to attend and make them in love with our Prayers There is a careless overly way of reading them so fast and with such little Devotion as hath exceedingly disgraced them and given great offence to the better sort of People among us and hardned the bad in Prophaness and Irreligion I hope none of you are guilty of this but it becomes me to admonish you of the danger of it and to beseech you constantly to compose your selves with the greatest seriousness and reverence and affection to perform Divine Service in the Church This will keep up the Majesty of our Worship and preserve it from Contempt For I can see nothing that should move those that Dissent from us to call it dead and formal but only the deadness and formality that hath appeared too often in him that Officiates Stir up your selves therefore to Officiate in every part of the Divine Service with a becoming Gravity and Deliberation and yet with such Life and Affection as may express your Concern to have your Petitions Granted and the word of God Regarded Avicenna as he is vulgarly called an Arabian Philosopher hath an excellent Discourse upon this Subject in the third part of his Metaphysicks Where having said that they who instruct the People ought to teach them Forms of Prayer wherein to address themselves to God He adds this Direction to them As a Man uses to prepare himself to come to the King in purity and cleanness with graceful Language and an humble Gravity with a comely Deportment of Body ceasing from all disorderly Motions there as well as from perturbation of mind so it is fit there should be laudable Modes and Forms of serving God at all times For these do highly conduce to imprint on the minds of the People a sense of the most high and to confirm them in their Devotion to the Laws and Rules of Life Which if they were not preserved by this solemn Commemoration Men would quite forget in one or two Generations Thus I find him quoted by Mr. Selden in his Comment in Eutichii Origines fol. 57. And he doth but express the sense of the Ancient Christians from whom the Mahometans derived that solemnity and seriousness which they use in their Divine Service It is no small part of the Study of Priests in the present Roman Church to learn how to compose their Looks and Gestures and Voices in the several Offices which they are to perform Which as it hath too much of the Theatre in it so that pains may all be spared by possessing our Minds with a deep sense and feeling of the Majesty of God to whom we speak and of our great need of the things which we pray him to bestow upon us This will naturally compose our Countenances and regulate the tone of our Voice and make us pronounce the Prayers as gracefully as we would a Petition to the greatest Majesty on Earth The Organs of Speech indeed in several Men are of a very different Frame and Figure so that all cannot speak no more than sing alike But some more harshly some more sweetly Yet an awful Sense of God upon our Minds and an hearty Love to him would form every Man's Voice to as good an Accent as his natural Capacity will permit SECT IV. The next Office in our Liturgy is The Order for the Administration of the Holy Communion which being the highest Duty of our Religion that which is most peculiar Christian Worship the greatest Care ought to
explain with greater care or inculcate more frequently than the Covenant of Grace which God hath made with us in Christ The terms and conditions of which you should endeavour to make your People thoroughly to understand both on Gods part and on their own together with the Mediator of this Covenant and the means whereby he purchased such gracious Conditions of Salvation for us But above all things we must take the greatest care that our life do not contradict our Doctrine for it is not sufficient that our Conversation in this World be innocent and unblameable but we must endeavour to make it exemplary and useful It must be so ordered as to convince the People that we firmly believe the excellence of those Vertues which we commend to them and that our chief aim and design is to save their Souls This will procure us love and esteem and make the People look upon us with Reverence as Men of God Our Office which is indeed very honourable is not sufficient to secure us from contempt if we act not according to it Nay men are prone to pry into our lives to see if they can find a justification of their own evil Practices by ours Which is the argument that Isidorus Peleusiota uses to a Bishop to be very cautious Lib. IV. Epist 219. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because his Life is scanned and strictly examined by a thousand eyes and tongues I shall say nothing particularly of our care to avoid any tang of Vain Glory and desire of applause in our Preaching but conclude this matter with this plain admonition That in an age so degenerate as that we now live in we ought to give all diligence to shine as Lights in the World as well as to be harmless and blameless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation holding forth the Word of Life by our examplary conversation that is as well as by Preaching II Philip. 15 16. This St. Paul there makes the duty of all Christians but above all it concerns the Ministers of Christ whom he himself calls V Mat. 13. 14. in a peculiar manner the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World And there never was greater need than now that we should study to season Men not only with wholsome Doctrine but an holy Example that we may preserve them from the Corruption which is in the World through lust There is a most dangerous putrefaction of manners as I may call it which hath so universally spread among us that I look upon the Nation as lost if we should lose our Savour Nothing can then preserve it from utter ruin and destruction And therefore let us distinguish our selves from others by our diligence in our calling by our exemplary Piety and Holiness that if it be possible we may save our Nation from perishing SECT VI. The next Office wherein you are concerned is the Ministration of Baptism of Infants Concerning which I shall only briefly admonish you of these things following 1. First that it is your duty to instruct your People frequently in the nature of this Sacrament that they may not imagine it an indifferent thing whether their Children be Baptized or no nor bring them carelessly to the Font as an old Ceremony that hath been long used in the Church But they may look upon it as indeed it is a solemn dedication of their Children to Christ and their entrance into the Covenant of Grace which they stand bound sacredly to keep And consequently call upon them often to consider their Children after this as Christ's Children by whom they are regenerate and boru again and therefore ought to be carefully brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. VI Ephes 4. 2. More particularly put them in mind that in Baptism a solemn profession is made of belief in the Blessed Trinity that is of God in Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Unto whose Service we are there devoted For it is no frivilous observation of Theophylact upon those Words of our Saviour XXVIII Mat. 19. Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does not say Baptise them into the Names but into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost For though they be three yet their Name viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Godhead is but one as he there explains it One God in three Persons of whose Love and Favour we are assured in Baptism and should value it above all the Riches in the World 3. And therefore admonish them what care they ought to take to give up their Children as soon as they can to this Blessed Trinity That they may be under their Care and partake of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Love of God and the Communion or Communication of the Holy Ghost as St. Paul speaks 2 Corinth XIII 14. And the first Rubrick before the Office for private Baptism directs them to admonish the People often that they defer not the Baptism of their Children longerthan the first or Second Sunday next after their birth or other Holy-day falling between unless upon a great and reasonable Cause to be approved by you 4. Next of all you are bound by the following Rubrick to warn them that without great Cause and Necessity they procure not their Children to be Baptized at home in their Houses The reason of which is given in the first Rubrick before the Office of Publick Baptism which sets forth the convenience of administring Baptism only upon Sundays or other Holy-days when the most number of People come together First For that the Congregation there present may testify the receiving of such as be newly Baptized into the Number of Christ's Church and Secondly that every Man present may be put in remembrance of his own Profession made to God in his Baptism Which are such wise and holy Reasons that every Man of Conscience who is Considerate will yield unto them 5. Advise Parents also about the Choice of Godfather and Godmothers and of the usefulness of them First about their Choice that they be such Persons as have a sense of Religion and understand it and will take some care it may be hoped of their Children if they themselves should die before they be grown up It is supposed that as long as Parents live they will put their Children in mind of their Vow in Baptism which is the reason that no new Obligation besides that they have already is laid upon them by making them Sureties for their Children But without this solemn undertaking for them other Men would not be so ready to assist them and look after their Education as it is to be hoped this will make them Which shows the other thing the usefulness of this Institution Which in the beginning of our Religion was in a manner absolutely necessary For when