Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	book_n	common_a	prescribe_v	2,784	5	9.6616	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70609	Presbyterian inquisition as it was lately practised against the professors of the Colledge of Edinburgh, August and September, 1690 in which the spirit of Presbytery and their present method of procedure is plainly discovered, matter of fact by undeniable instances cleared, and libels against particular persons discussed.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?	1691 (1691)	Wing M2443; ESTC R5724	77,713	110

People but indeed the weapons of their warfare are only known to be mighty because they are felt to be Carnal Two Arguments I find lately insisted upon by some Patrons of that Party to prove that the general Inclination of that Kingdom is for Presbytery They are to be seen in P. 32. of a late Pamphlet Entituled A further Vindication c. The first is That the Bishops durst never venture upon the Calling of a National Synod even in that Period that Episcopacy stood by Law lest some of the Clergy might assault the very Order of Bishops tho' most of them had received Orders from their own hands To this I answer That if the Author of this Pamphlet is is perswaded That the most part of the Episcopal Clergy are for Presbytery why then does he not influence the Presbyterians to receive them into the Government especially since he acknowledges that the Ministers cannot lawfully part with their share of Ecclesiastical Power to any other The Factions in the State rather than the Inclinations of the Clergy was the Reason why the Bishops did not call a National Synod And if the Author thinks that the Scotish Clergy are for Presbytery how inexcusable is it in the Presbyterians to Prosecute them so violently when they have nothing to object against them but that they complyed with Episcopacy since the first Covenanters were as liable to this Accusations as any of the present Clergy His next Argument is That there was a Necessity to maintain an Army to Suppress the Insurrections of the Western Shires when the Government was Episcopal This is rather a threatning than an Argument and we know very well that since ever that Sect thrust up its Head above the Ground they were troublesome to Authority and will continue so as long as there is any matter for FACTION and REVENGE to work upon for they Preach to their People that they may advance their own way whether the Prince will or will not But I leave it to the Author to judge what the Consequences should be if the Episcopal Clergy who are now so cruelly trampled upon by their Insolence and Injustice should Preach to the People of their Communion the same very Doctrines that are Propagated by the Covenantors if they Preached up Assassinations and Rebellions as their Enemies do I suppose a more considerable Army would be necessary for it is certain that the People that adhere to the Episcopal Clergy can fight much better than the Western Covenanters and 2000 Men can keep these Shires very quiet at any time But in stead of those lame Topicks which he fancies Demonstrations I think a better expedient were to put it to the Poll of the whole Nation which I know the Presbyterians will never be for The Author is much mistaken if he thinks that the Plurality of the Scots Clergy are Presbyterians though they are content to joyn with Presbyterians in Church Judicatories in all those Duties that are uncontroverted His Book is rather an Advice to the Presbyterians than an Apology for them For as long as the Constitution is such as that it may be wrested it 's certain they will use it not for Edification but Destruction and the question in our present Circumstances is not what belongs to the Civil and what to the Ecclesiastical Power but what the Presbyterians have formerly done what they do now what 's likely they will do hereafter upon their own Principles and whether or not they can ever be perswaded to profess their Repentance for what they have done The Author indeed deserves thanks that he offers them a more moderate Scheme and that he acknowledges their former Extravagancies but in all the Book I see no proper Remedy for our present Confusions and the truth is there are many of his thoughts very just yet the true Remedy is not to offer Advice but to pull out the Teeth of our Oppressors and then and not till then every Man may sit under his own Fig-tree However I intend this Author no Unkindness who I think understands the World very well and much better than he does some places of St. Paul's Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles Which I have no mind to examine fully in this Preface Only let him be advis'd not to alledge for Presbytery that place of St. Paul to the Corinthians The Spirits of the Prophets are subject unto the Prophets For tho' this Text should be chang'd unto all shapes and figures it can yield nothing to his purpose for it lignifies no more than that the Prophets inspired by God were lest in the Exercise and Possession of their Reason when they uttered their Prophesies and this distinguished them from the Exstaticks and Enthusiasts who were possesed by Devils and delivered their Oracular Responses in Fury and Transport For the other mistake of the Apostolick Character Pag. 4. It is no more than what is ordinarily said in all Presbyterian Systems but when he Examines it a little more accurately he will find by this especial Character which he appropriates to the Apostles and by which he distinguishes the Apostles from other Ministers that the Seventy Disciples are as much Apostles as the Twelve I hope the Author of that Pamphlet will Pardon this Digression His Book may be examined more seasonably in another Treatise When ever he perswades the Brethren of his way to act like reasonable Men they will meet with less opposition and he himself will deserve the just Commendations of Prudence and Modesty They have hitherto gloried in their Extemporary Prayers I love not at any rate to play with things Sacred I know that Men in Private and in their Closets ought not be tied to Words or Forms that are prescribed for if we can fix our Attention on God himself and the things agreeable to his Will and suitable to our Necessities we need not words if we have but strong and fervent Desires for all things are naked and open to the Eyes of him with whom we have to do but when we go into the House of God it 's long since Solomon advis'd to go with reverence for he is in Heaven and we are upon Earth our words should not only be few but very well weighed and apt to beget in the Hearers an awful sence of his Presence and of the inconceivable distance between him and the Workmanship of his hands Therefore the Wisdom of the Christian Church thought fit in all Ages to put words in the Mouths of her Children when they approach the most High God in his House of Prayer for it is very odd that we dare come into his House with less Preparation than we do when we address to any of our considerable Neighbours yet with the saddest regret it must be acknowledged that the Presbyterians of late have to the Disgrace of Christian Religion and of the Solemnity of its Worship changed the Devotion of the Christian Church into incoherent Rapsodies and Fopperies I am confident not to

set in the front to make up the Muster and for no other end since he dares no more appear to make good this than the other triffling particulars Was it my Swearing the Oath of the Test once and again or my recommending to the Scholars the first Year I came here such Books as I judged most proper to Discover and confute the Superstitions of the Roman Church Had it not been far easier for the Libeller who hath no regard to Truth or Probability to have cast into this Paper more odious Crimes But I was in France and therefore behoved to be a Papist and this is enough for this triffling Lybeller I am very sure none of the Papists ever thought me one The second Article is a Confirmation of the first Mr. Burnet was suspect of Popery when he came here and I did all I could to get Scholars to his Class particularly I spoke to Bailey Grahame for his Son and the Chancellour thanked me for the Care I took of Mr. Burnets Concern and such as he was The then Magistrates of Edinburgh several of the Learned Colledge of Physicians and all the Professors of this University will bear me Witness that I left no stone unturned to keep Mr. Burnet out of this Colledge And yet the Libeller hath the Honesty to accuse me that Mr. Burnet was suspect of Popery Was this my fault or was it truly a fault in Mr. Burnet that he was Suspect of Popery The Lord Archbishop of Glascow and Sir Thomas Kennedy then Protest will vindicate me in this particular For it is very well known how much I opposed Mr. Burnet's entry here a Gentleman of known Parts and Integrety one of the Professors of Philosophy in the old Colledge of St. Andrews was the Man I wished to fill up the vacance that happened by the Death of Mr. Lidderdale but Mr. Burnet being once thrust in upon us more by the Duke of Gordon than the Earl of Perth what could I do with him My care of this House obliged me to make him as useful as I could He lay under the Suspicion of being Popish but I knew this to be a Calumny and if I had not endeavoured to get him some Scholars we should have wanted one entire Class in the Colledge This is the true Reason why I spoke to Bailzie Grahame to send his Son to Mr. Burnet and procured an Act of the Faculty for I could make none as the Libeller impertinently suggests that such as were Mr. Lidderdale's Scholars the preceeding Year should be taught for that Year in no other Class but Mr. Burnet's who succeeded to his charge This was no Arbitrary stretch of mine but a just defence of the Current and usual Customes of the House for Mr. Burnet having the second Class could expect none else but the Students that were taught in Mr. Lidderdale's Class the preceeding year but it is added I did all this because I favoured Popery and the Chancellour thanked me for it But this is a down right Lye for I never Entertain'd the Chancellour with Discourses of Mr. Burnet besides for any thing I know the Chancellour had no value for him III. The next is that formidable one of Reading the English Service in my Family in that Interval when there was no National Church Government here But the Libeller forgets that this quite frustrates his first attempt They must be odd kind of Papists that Read the Service of the Church of England upon the 5th of November But the Libeller adds that the Book of Common Prayer was never allowed here since the Reformation does he mean that the Service of the Protestant Church of England was used here before the Reformation but to let this go the Book of Common Prayer was Read in many Families in Scotland ever since the Restitution of King Charles II. and Publickly Read in the Abbey of Hollyrood-house in the Reign of King Charles the First and I hope the Tolleration by King James did not Exclude the English Prayers But upon Enquiry it will be found that they were the first Prayers that were Read in Scotland after the Reformation for Buchannan tells us expresly as you see in the Margin And Buchanans Testimony is the more Remarkable that the Confession of Faith was Ratified in Parliament that very year so that we have not only the private Practice of a few great Reformers Wisheart and several others to justifie the English Liturgy but also the Solemn Concession of the whole Nation who thought their Confession then Ratified had in it nothing contradictory to or inconsistent with the Book of Common Prayer Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England And such as plead for their Separation from the Church of England from the Practices of the first Reformers here go upon an unpardonable Mistake in our History But the plain Matter of Fact is this when I left off Preaching in the High Church I advised with some of my Brethren and the Result was that we should Read the Book of Common Prayer and Preach within our Familes per vices since most of them were acquainted somewhat with the Liturgy of the Church of England Neither did we think when Quakers and all Sects were Tolerated that we should be blamed for Reading those Prayers within our private Families which we prefer to all other Forms now used in the Christian Church Neither had we any design to Proselite the People to any thing they had no mind to else I might have Read the Liturgy in one of the Publick Schools within the Colledge And it must not be said we were afraid to venture upon the Publick Exercise of it because of the Rabble for during the Session of the Colledge it is very well known in the City that the Mobile durst not presume to give us the least Disturbance However the Matter succeeded beyond what we proposed or looked for we Preached to the People upon the Sundays they came by hundreds more than we had room for and very many became acquainted with the Liturgy of the Church of England and perceived by their own Experience there was neither Popery nor Superstition in it and when the Libeller knows it better he will forbear his Violence and Foolish Cavilling But your Lordships will not think I make all this Apology as if I were diffident of the intrinsick Excellency of Common Prayer or that I had done something that needs an Excuse for I look upon the Church of England as the true Pillar and Centre of the Reformation and if Her Enemies should lay Her in the Dust which God forbid there is no other Bulwark in Britain to stop or retard the Progress of either Popery or Enthusiasme And I wonder Men should retain so much bitterness against the Church of England valued and Admired by all Foreign Churches and whose Liturgie as it is the most Serious and Comprehensive so it is the most agreeable to the Primitive Forms