Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ceremony_n	church_n	rite_n	2,845	5	10.3412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45174	Cheirothesia, or, A confirmation of the apostolicall confirmation of children setting forth the divine ground, end, and use of that too much neglected institvtion, and now published as an excellent expedient to truth and peace / by Jos. Hall ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1651 (1651)	Wing H372A; ESTC R40542	23,459	98

likewise upon the formerly Baptized otherwise had not this been familiarly known both in the Practice and use of it Imposition of hands had never been recorded for a point of the Ancient Catechisme of Christs Church The succeeding hands then were also imposed but to what purpose Surely no Man can think the end of this act could in them be other then Holy Spirituall as they in their calling succeeded those Prime Founders of the Church so this act also succeeded theirs though not in giving the visible Graces of the Spirit which in thē was miraculous yet in obtaining an increase of invisible Grace to the Receiver as theirs also more effectually did For certainly we shall grosly mistake this whole act if we shall conceive it to have been onely a dumb or dead Ceremony completed in the motion of an Hand and touch of an Head there was withall a life and vigour put into it by the zealous Prayer of the godly Pastor and Congregation which might not returne to him without a Blessing Neither was it otherwise of old When the Patriarch Jacob laid his hands upon Ephraim and Manasses Head it was not without a fervent apprecation God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk the God which fed me all my life-long unto this day the Angell which redeemed me from all evill blesse the Lads It was not the bare hand of Moses laid upon Joshua that could replenish him with the spirit of Wisdome without his Prayers Yea our blessed Saviour himself to whom all power was given in Heaven and in Earth when he touched the dumb Man and said Ephatah he lookt up into Heaven as thence fetching his Cure The Apostles when the seaven Elected Deacons were presented unto them did not without solemne Prayer lay their hands upon them When Barnabas and Saul were separated by the charge of the holy Ghost to the great worke of God to which they were Designed Hands were laid on them but withall Prayers were made for them So in this very case when the Baptized Samaritans should be confirmed by Peter and John their hands were laid on with Prayers These these are they which gave Virtue to the Hands which certainly without these being but Flesh could have no Spirituall Operation upon the Soul but being thus seconded could not but be available to the furtherance of Grace in the Receiver This is the practice which Holy Cyprian tells was successively continued in the Church who speaking of the Samaritans Baptized by Philip and confirmed afterwards by the Prayers and Imposition of the Hands of the forementioned Apostles addes Quod nunc quoque c. which is still saith he practised amongst us That those which are Baptized in the Church are by the Governours of the Church presented unto us and by our Prayers and laying on of our Hands receive the holy Ghost c. It is utterly needlesse to cite any further proof of this Point or any particular Attestation to the act of Confirmation done with great consent and allowance in the Primitive times when S. Jerom in his Dialogue against the Luciferians having said That by the imposition of Authorized hands the holyGhost was still convayed to the Baptized addes Dost thou ask me where this is written In the Acts of the Apostles but if there were no Authority of Scripture at all for it the consent of the whole world to this point might well challenge the force of a precept Thus he Since therefore it is undeniably certaine that after the miraculous Gifts were ceased yet still this practice of Imposition of hands was with the generall approbation of the Christian Church continued to succeeding Ages I ask when and why it ceased Have we any warrant for banishing it out of the Church of God Have we any just ground of reason to forbear and discontinue the use of it Have we lesse need of Grace or Confirmation then our Forefathers Or is the power of Gods Ordinance abated and now languisheth with Age Or are we lesse qualified to performe this gracious act then our Predecessours Surely the Church of England which to Her eternall praise and honour be it spoken hath ever been studiously carefull to maintaine all Apostolicall constitutions and practises above all Her Reformed Sisters hath not failed to hold out this Holy Ordinance and to recommend it in the most Ancient Simple and Inoffensive Forme to all Her obedient Children Neither doe we finde that the present times though too ful of Distraction and Quarrell have ever declared any Opposition to or Dislike of that never-interrupted never-disallowed Institution so as we have just reason to think that it both should and doth continue in its full right and vigour Sect. 9. But lest the discontinuance of the act together with some prejudice of the otherwise affected should have worne out of the mindes of Men the Memory of that Laudable and Godly Practise it will not be amisse to recall unto our thoughts the Wise and Exemplary Order wherein that Holy Rite was injoyned to be administred First therefore having removed away all the trash of Superstitious and frivolous Appendances as the Crosse the Chrisme the Stripe the Fillet and the rest as aiming onely at the Originall simplicity of that Religious Ceremony Secondly having removed away all opinion of a Sacrament for which the Church of Rome hath unjustly strugled and therewith disclaimed all derogation from the power and vertue of Baptisme And thirdly having solemnly professed against the misconceit of an absolute necessity of this rite to Salvation in them which die after Baptisme before hands can be laid upon them the Church of England hath piously ordered the Imposition of hands so to be Administred as may be to the greater edification of those that are to receive it and therefore hath ordained that none should be confirmed but such as can give account of having learned the Articles of the Faith the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandements and that initiatory Catechisme which is purposely appointed for their preparation wherein this Church hath judiciously and not without good ground both of Reason Religion reformed that common Errour and Abuse of the Church of Rome which commonly casts away their Confirmation upon Babes in the Cradle of their first infancy For though some of their Doctors are willing to limit this act unto the age of their puberty which is the twelfth year others to the seventh that so the Child may at least remember though yet he understand not what was done to him yet the most are of opinion that there is no cause to deferre their Confirmation till they come to the use of Reason and doe practise accordingly so as Alphonsus Vivaldus tells us that commonly in Spaine all Children of two or three years old are wont to be confirmed and Petrus a Soto and Cassander professes it to have beene the ancient Order of the Church that forthwith after their Baptisme

effect hath long ceased shall we therefore say that Faith is vain and forcelesse farre be it from us so to slaunder that Divine grace which still and ever exercises a more excellent power in the Believer in that it quickneth him to a new life according to that of the Prophet The just shall live by Faith Although then we presume not to affect the working of wonders by the imposing of our handsupon the heads of the baptized yet why should we not dare to hope that the solemn laying on of approved hands seconded by our fervent prayers shall help to work an increase of grace in the hearts of capable Receivers Now if any man shall think fit to match this imposition of hands upon the baptized with the anointing the sick with oyl mentioned by the Apostle which being both used and required in the Primitive times had doubtlesse a soveraign effect but now the power of healing being lost is no better then a purposelesse and vain ceremonie let him know there is a great difference to be put betwixt both these that oyl was professedly intended and used for a bodily cure onely receiving its vertue from a power above that of nature and therefore justly ranged amongst those primtive miracles which continued not Ages in the Church whereas the imposition of hands was directed to Spirituall ends and such as were of eternall use and benefit to which may be added that the doctrine of anointing with oyl had never the honour to be numbred amongst Christian principles which yet is yeilded to the imposition of hands by the great Herald of the Church Sect. 7. Had the Apostle onely by the way so let fall the mention of imposition of hands that no further noise had been afterwards made of it in the Church of Christ it might perhaps have been supposed some occasionall ceremony not intended for perpetuity but now when we find the continuation of both the precept and practice in the immediately-succeeding times deducing it self through all the ages of the Church though lateward not without some taint of superstitious interspersions which are easily wip'd away we have reason to think it was never distin'd to an abrogation Clemens the fellow-labourer to the Apostles in that Epistle which he writes to his Disciples Julius and Julianus makes an honourable commendation of it to all Christians charging them to hasten both their Baptisme and Confirmation by reason of the great uncertainty of the time of their dissolution attributing to it the conveyance of the seven-fold grace of the Holy Spirit to the receiver I may not conceal that the credit of this Epistle amongst the rest hath undergone question which indeed none of his letters have escaped as is confessed by Eusebius save onely that to the Corinthians now lately published but not to stand upon Turrianus his terms of Apologie I must needs say this one carries simplicity in the face of it passing under no other style then of Clemens Bishop of the city of Rome and that if the authority of it be suspected yet the age cannot so as if not authenticall yet it is not denyed to be exceeding ancient That story is famous which is reported by Eusebius from Clemens of Alexandria concerning the young man whom Saint Iohn the Apostle after his return from Pathmos delivered and doubly recommended to the carefull custody of a grave Bishop under a vehement adjuration the Bishop saith that ancient and unquestionable Author received the young man to his charge trained him up in his house and at last * christned him and after that proceeded yet to such height of diligent observance of him as that for a singular preservative he added moreover to him the obsignation with the seal of the Lord to wit his Confirmation who yet proving afterward miserably debauched was by the Apostle graciously reclaimed Not to take in our way the full testimonies of Dennis the Areopagite and Origen that of Tertullian is most clear the flesh is over-shadowed with the imposition of the hand that the soul may be illightned by the spirit And elsewhere Then is the hand laid on by that benediction calling in and inviting the Holy Ghost How frequent his Scholar the blessed Martyr Cyprian is in the report of this practice no man that hath turn'd over his Epistles can be ignorant And that no man may say these if hundreds more such are but single witnesses the Councell of Arles in the time of Constantine the great consisting as Binius numbers them of two hundred or as Ado in his Chronicle of six hundred Bishops ordaines That if any shall return to the Church from their former heresie they shall be examined concerning the Articles of their Creed and if it be found that they have been baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost hands shall be onely laid upon them that they may receive the Holy Ghost But to what purpose should I presse my Reader with throngs of witnesses when all those testimonies which are mis-alledged by Romish Authors whether of Councels or Fathers or Doctors to prove their Confirmation a Sacrament yet cannot be denyed thus much validity as to prove there hath ever been a confirmation If they have uniustly contended to impose a wrong title upon the imposition of hands yet it is no lesse clear that there was imposition then that there were hands to be imposed and if they have palpably corrupted that wholsom institution with the inter-mixtures of their own mis-becomming devises this can be no more prejudice to the true Originall purity of it then it can derogate from a beautifull face that it was once besmear'd with a foul liniment wipe off the filth and the face is still it self It is true that some of their additionall Ceremonies came in betimes but late enough to disprove their pedegree from any Apostolique authority others of them as clapping on the cheek the crosse of the thumb treading on the toe filleting the forehead for seven dayes and the like may justly seem to be no lesse vain then new and to serve onely to confirme us in the lightnesse and indiscretion of their founders Casting aside therefore all those fopperies wherewith time and weak Superstition have clogged this Holy Ordinance Let us look at it in that native and thereupon most comely simplicity wherein it passed from the hands of the blessed Apostles and in that plaine and holy dresse wherein they by the guidance of the good Spirit of God wherewith they were inspired left it to the entertainment of the ensuing world Sect. 8. That our Saviour laid his sacred hands on the Children that were brought unto him in way of benediction and that his Apostles laid their hands on Persons that had been Baptized for conferring on them the Holy Ghost it is most evident neither can it be doubted but that their Successours in the Pastoral Charge of the Church laid their hands