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	form_n	prescribe_v	2,576	5	9.6098	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45123	An answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's sermon, by some nonconformists, being the peaceable design renewed wherein the imputation of schism wherewith the doctor hath charged the nonconformists meetings, is removed, their nonconformity justified, and materials for union drawn up together, which will heal both parties.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Lobb, Stephen, d. 1699.	1680 (1680)	Wing H3668; ESTC R22261	36,018	45

is true there is one instance from Antiquity out of Athanasius of some persons with Ischryas among them whom they would not allow according as these hold to be Ministers because one Coluthus that ordained them was only a Presbyter Unto which may be added the Story of the purblind Bishop in the Hispaline Council Circa An. 656 But we answer in the sense as we remember of Dr. Field on the Church It is one thing what they judged according to their Ecclesiastical Canons and another what we ought to judge according to the Word of God The Scripture makes no difference between Bishop and Presbyter the Superiority and Inferiority arising after in the Church And when we are made Christs Ministers and put in office by him according to his Word how shall that Authority be vacated for something wanting only in the Constitutions of Men Here is a matter of Infinite wrong which the opinion of these Men does us It takes away the Office Christ hath given us and holds it null If it was a grievous thing in the late times to put one of these Ministers out of his Place only what is it to put so many of us out of our Office There is no Person almost of Spirit but will be ready to part with his life as soon as the Honour he holds from the King and shall not the Ordained Minister maintain the Right which he holds from Christ When so many eminent Predecessors to these Bishops and other defenders of this Church have maintained Presbyterian Ordination When the Reformed Churches abroad have no other When the Case was such as that there was no other to be had here in the late times When not we alone then are concerned only in the wrong but our Lord and Master whose cause is it and whose business we are to do and the Souls of so many people We cannot but appeal to the Higher Powers in a matter of so great right and wrong as this is For we are contented to have revised and judged whether the Diocesan Bishop be distinguishedly named in Christs Charter for Ordination as he is in the Canons of Men Or when we have been ordained already as Timothy by the laying on of the hands of Presbytery whether the Lawn be de Essentia to the Ceremony and the Hands avail nothing without the Sleeves on The next thing is the Declaration I A. B. do here declare my unfained assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book Entituled The Book of Common Prayer and the Form of Ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons That is Assent to all and every thing contained in and Consent to every thing prescribed by these Books Sirs There was a time when that the Nation had the hopeful Overture of a Concord between the Sober of two parties and the Hearts of Most men were in preparation to receive it But alas Instead of such a Gracious and Blessed Issue as was expected we have here the streight Injunction of an Assent and Consent to all Conformity and every thing of it new and old to be approved and obeyed or else one part of the Ministry must be immediately turn'd out How can those now whose Judgments are and have been still for Moderation between both Opinions in times before as now be able to come over to one side altogether on such Terms as these How can these we say make so short a turn as this without the Hazard of some sprain to their Consciences if they do it We cannot tell you perhaps nor are willing to declare the impression which we have upon our Spirits against a going back from that more Spiritual Plain and Simply zealous Service of Almighty God in the way we were in and Reformation we sought unto that Something we are not used to and fear To wit unto a form of worship and Discipline that carrying a countenance of both but being rather only a kind of Idols of them doth seem to us by the shew pomp and complement of the things it contains not to undermine the Life Power and Efficacy of one and the other We cannot tell you perhaps what hath moved us so much from within against an ingulphing with this Generation whether fear of Popery returning on us or aliquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we will produce Two or Three Instances a piece against Assent and against Consent to that which is injoyned that we may approve our selves to the Consciences of all as well as our own in refusing this Declaration For our Assent In the Athanasian Creed we find this passage Which Faith except every one does keep whole without doubt he shall perish everlastingly One of the Articles of this Creed is this The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son In this Article we know the Greek Church hath differed from the Latin and held That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only If we give our Assent then to every thing or passage contained in this Book we must believe the Greek Church undoubtedly Damned And what if some of the Non-conformists as well as of Connformists do believe it not impossible but that some Heathen may be saved What if they cannot think otherwise in regard to the Goodness of God but that whosoever he was or is that walk'd or walks up to his Light in sincerity with a general Repentance for his unseen Errors must by vertue of the Covenant made with Adam faln and Noah no less than the Jews were by the same confirmed with Abraham be in a state of acceptation with God conceiving but both alike for ought they see were ignorant of their Redemption by the Blood of Christ or the means how their Peace was made with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have shewn before that Christ is the first begotten of God the Divine Reason Wisdom or Word whereof the whole kind of Mentor the whole stock of Mankind do partake and whosoever lives according to Reason are Christians though they be accounted Heathen or without God such as Socrates Heraclitus and the like Justin Martyr in his second Apology for the Christians We do not day we receive this nor deny it We are though ready to say what was Luthers saying We hope God will be merciful to such a one as Cicero but our duty is to abide by the Word And yet cannot this little Candor it self be used if we must be forced to declare that whosoever believes not the Athanasian Creed must undoubtedly perish Not that other Nonconformists generally make any scruple in this But what do those sober and learned Doctors of the Church think of it who have a name given them upon this account that though they hold some things that agree not with her Articles or Homilies yet they can conform to them or have a Latitude to do it I A. B. do declare my unfained Assent and Consent to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer and yet

I A. B. do declare that I Assent not to that passage in the Athanasian Creed Again I A. B. do profess that a Heathen may be saved and yet I do libenter ex animo subscribe to the Article amongst the Thirty-nine that does pronounce him Accursed who dares hold such an opinion We are not ignorant indeed how some would blend the two terms Assent and Consent and then interpret them by the words to the use in the Act But this is a shist which will not satisfie all persons and many desire to use no shifts If these words to the use had been put into the Declaration it self it had been better Yet if they had Assent is proper to the Truth and Consent to the Vse And yet moreover how can a man unfainedly consent to the use of any such Particular which is false and which perhaps he even abhors that the Wise and Ingenuous of his particular perswasion should think he believed Another Instance shall be this In the Service on the Gunpowder Treason we thank God for preserving the King and the Three Estates of the Realm Assambled It is a difficult Point now in the Politicks of England Whether the Three Estates be The King the House of Lords and the House of Commons Or the Lord-Spiritual Temporal and Commons The late King made no Scruple in his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions to reckon himself one of the Three Estates Neither was there any we know that durst account the Three Estates of the Land to be dissolved when the Dishops were turned out of House by an Act. We cannot tell therefore of what Consequence it is to the fundamental liberty constitution and state of this Kingdom to yield unto the insinuation of such a thing as this in in our Prayers No man can give his unfained Assent to any thing he knows not and understands not This is a thing we do not know that the Bishops are indeed one of the Three Estates of this Realm Whether they be or no we Dispute not but till we are better satisfied with them and their station we are afraid that any snare should be laid for the people in the Exercise of their Devotions unto God We must mention one Particular more which is our general Exception In the new Book there is inserted several passages that make the Bishops a distinct Office and Order from the Presbyter We need not name the Words for they are put in more than once de industria They would not be content with a difference in Degree and Eminency but they would have us decalare to a Jure Divino distinction disproved by Learned Doctors among the Papists and among the Episcopal men as well as the Reformed Churches Now we humbly beseech the Parliament to consider Whether the Bishops have dealt candidly with us to get such a Condition imposed on the Presbyterian to the keeping of his Ministry as not only Bishop Davenant and Vsher but such as Dr. Field and Francis Mason must have been turned out for Nonconformists upon the same There are Two Orders Ecclesiastical Presbyteri Diaconi When we say Bishops Priests and Deacons we name but two Orders yet three Degrees Mr. Joseph Mede Disc V. For our Consent We will name three things likewise and but name them more indefinitely There is the Hierarchy or Bishop invested with sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction There are the Ceremonies in general so often disputed There is the Imposition it self of things not necessary the occasion of stumbling to many good men and cause of our Divisions Two of these things are matters of most Notorious concernment which would require each of them a Book it self to peruse but we have no such liberty and must be content therefore only with the bare Notification If we give our unfained consent To all and every thing prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer and Form of Ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons then must we give our approbation we suppose to these things amongst others But if the Two first are disputable which we must desire therefore to be weighed according to the engagement of mens minds and consciences about these Subjects and not after our passing short mention of them we are past doubt in the last that to Impose things that are inductive to others to sin and yet not necessary in unlawful What Charter hath Christ given to the Church to bind men up to more than himself hath done says Stillingfleet with much more to that purpose in his Epistle to his Irenicum We will not speak so laxly altogether as he does there but when we distinguish the Imposition and Submission this we are fully perswaded of in Conscience that though a Submission to the things Imposed may perhaps be maintained the Imposition of them in not to be so neither by that Doctor nor by us For if we build again the things we have destroyed we make our selves transgressors It is not Sirs the serving God by a Liturgy or the reading Common-Prayer in the ordinary daily Service that makes us Nonconformists though it be this only lyes in the view of the inconsiderate Many and though there are some things we except against the occasional Offices which by and by may be named We are sorry if any have given cause for such a scandal which tends to the breaking of Concord and Charity which ought to be maintained equally between the brethren of our Private and of the Parochial Congregations We should be ready to do any thing we could to the healing this scandal But there are matters of another moment which if we had liberty to open to the World at large as our cause requires we doubt not but that it might come to see whether we have reason to stick at Conformity or no. There are few of us who are not sensible in some measure of the Corruption which hath crept into the Church in regard to the Discipline or Government of it by the Hierarchy and Diocesan Bishop so much degenerated since Cyprians time from the primitive simplicity And there hath passed a solemn Oath over the Nation engaging the main Body of it to the endeavour of a Reformation Now when the same Government is returned upon the Land with all its former Corruptions and more heavy Injunctions if we should generally submit again to it without obtaining any amendment composition or abatement we dread to think on it with what faces they shall be able to stand before God who have lift up their hands to him for things quite contrary in the late Revolutions But to proceed At last besides the matter of this Declaration The strict prescription as to the form of words is more especially to be noted That this Declaration be made in these words and no other And what if a Minister would read the Book of common-Common-Prayer without this Declaration Or what if he would declare to the Contents of the Book in other Expressions Why should these crooked SS's

be ram'd down the Throat to Choak any If we were put to declare in this form of words to any Book we know of this bulk even to the Bible it self there are some might stick out It is said in the Kings That Ahaziah was Two and Twenty years old when he began to Reign and in the Chronicles that he was Two and Forty Let us suppose these two places reconcileable in the Hebrew for our Assemblies Annotations hath reconciled them but both these cannot be true at least in the English Translation If we were put therefore to declare in these words and no other I A. B. Do declare my Assent to every thing contained in our Bible we should be gravel'd For we cannot Assent to the Truth of them both in the English nor Consent to the Error of the Transcription or Translation if we think there is no other way as Mr. Diodate says to reconcile them In Psal 150. v. 28. our Psalter reads the words thus And they were not obedient to his Word our Bible reads them And they rebelled against his Word We argue here One Particular contained in the Book of common-Common-Prayer is the Translation of this Text. But if the Translation be true in the Psalter it is false in the Bible and if it be true in the Bible it is false in the Psalter That they rebelled and rebelled not no man can give his Assent We know indeed how the words may be true in both Translations as to the minds of the Translators the one referring them to Moses and Aaron and the other the Egyptians But we urge this more strictly The mind of the Text it self of the Holy Ghost or Davids mind whose Psalm it is was but one While the Translators then are contrary in their minds both of them cannot have Davids mind and so one of the Translations must have that meaning which is false And why must we be made then to give our Consent that both these Translations should be used when the false may be amended by the right We mention these little things among several others that have bin objected by Noncomformists heretofore to shew the insuperable incumbrance of such continued Injunctions and there is one like thing more which none perhaps before us have publickly offered It is the Rule prescribed us for the finding out the moveable Feasts and Holy day Easter-day on which the rest depend is always the first Sunday after the first Full Moon which happens next after the One and Twentyeth day of March Now examine this Rule for the late year 1674 and you will find the first Full Moon after the One and Twentyeth of March was upon the Tenth of April and consequently if this Rule hold good the next Sunday which was April the Twelsth should have been Easter-day But Easter-day was upon the Nineteenth of April as the Table for Forty years in the Common-Prayer Book does tell you as well as our Almanacks did Well! and how then shall we declare our Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained in this Book The Table is in the Book and the Rule is in the Book If the Rule be true the Table is false If the Table be true the Rule is false It is a grievous Case that we must be turned out of our Livings because we cannot give our Assent and Consent to Both. Having mentioned these lesser things then in the way we shall perhaps be blamed if we neglect some other that are of more notice with our brethren or Moment with us In the Preface before the Prayers we have this injunction And all Priests and Deacons are to say dayly the Morning and Evening prayer either privately or openly not being let by Sickness or some other Vrgent Cause We dare not here give our Consent to the use of any thing which we never intend to perform We do and shall use at home our own Prayers In the other Preface before Ordination there is this passage with larger words And to this intent that these Orders be reverendly esteemed no man shall be accounte or taken for a Lawful Priest or be suffered to execute the Functon except he be called according to this form or hath had formerly Episcopial Ordination Let the Reader here who hath any tenderness at his heart ☞ consider whether he can consent to this Whether he is so assur'd that the Nation lies under no Guilt in turning out so many Ministers who were Ordain'd only by the Presbyters as that he dares partake in the deed by his Consent Our hearts we are sure will not serve us to do it We give no Assent or Consent unto this God give those repentance that do In the Office of Baptism The Parents are not admitted to Covenant for their Children and how shall the Infant answer Crede Abrenuntie out of the mouth of the God-father It is the Parents being in Covenant that gives Title to the Childs Baptism and unless the Father or Mother make such a profession as that we can probably judge the one or the other thereby to be in Covenant we cannot some of us admit the Children to Baptism nor Themselves to the Lords Supper In the Burial How shall we be able for our lives to say of every one that dies Un-excommumcate in the Parish that God of his great Mercy hath taken his Soul unto himself with such like Expressions Or that it is certain by Gods Word that every Child Baptized before Actual Sin is in a state of Salvation Let our Learned Gataker be consulted De Baptismatis Infantilis vi Efficacia and then judge of it who will In the Rubrick to these Offices before mentioned and to the Communion if we Consent to every thing prescribed or to the use of every thing there prescribed we must not deliver the Bread and Wine to a man if he Scruple to Kneel at the Sacrament ☞ We must turn away his Child from Baptisme if he Scruples God-Fathers And if the Child dyes before it is Christned though the Parents be our dear Friends we must not allow it Christian Burial We do not Consent to these things and the shift before of these words To the use will not help us In the Service for the Holy days There are the most of us not agreed upon the Lawfulness of such days Six days shalt thou labour But above all the rest there is one things in S. Clements day prescrib'd by the new Common-Prayer Book that we wonder how those themselves that put is in can give their Consent to it which is the Change of a profitable Chapter in Esay for the Story God defend us of Bell and the Dragon There is lastly the use of the Cross a compleat Institution of is self brought in or added to the Ordinance of Christ and appearing to be of the same nature and end This we doubt does entrench upon his Kingly Office and must humbly therefore offer on reason for the removal which we sollicite

divers Livings But when Jesus Christ the great Master or the Vineyard does command their labour and that they fe●d the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers there is no such priviledge to be urged but in the nature of the thing it is void There is no Custom no Right no Law if the King Lords and Commons if the whole World should agree to make it that can be of force against the Gospel Nulla datur potestas ad malum There are few of you who are Protestants in either Houses without jealousie that the Romanists were borrowing an Helve for their Hatchet out of the Wood of the Fanaticks and that if they came to obtain their purpose it is not hard to conjecture which Trees were like to go down one after another As those men of the Church therefore are so willing you should do something for the security of your Religion and them it is meet that they should be ready to contribute to it That they who preach the Gospel to others should be perswaded to put the great duty of it which is self-abrenuntiation into practise themselves For that man is not fit to be a Minister of Christ or admitted into his Vineyard at all that does not look more to his Work than to his Penny and seeks not the welfare of Jerusalem above his advancement and had not rather convert one Soul than get two Livings and have a Prebend to spare According to what every mans mind is most upon in his Sphear the publick Interest or his own such is his value more or less However this be whether they are willing or not there is a universale eminens dominium in the Supreme Legislative Authority that puts an end to all Cavll if there arise any de jure privatorum And we will conclude with this That whatsoever things are therefore substantially profitable for the Community and are retarded only by the interest of private persons these are things most truly worthy the Consultation of Parliament God Almighty keep alive the true English publick Spirit God preserve the Protestant Religion and the Person of the King God prosper an accommodation We of the Kings Party says Judge Jenkins did and do detest all Grievances of the People as much as any men living In his Lex Terrae It is a certain truth This Kingdom without an Act of Oblivion and a meet regard had to tender consciences will unavoidably be ruined In the Armies Indempnity I say again That without a Gracious general Pardon from His Majesty and a favour able regard had to tender Consciences there will be neither Truth nor Peace in the Land nor any man secure of any thing that he hath In his Cordial for the good People of London And again in His Declaration for Tryals of Treasons and all Capital Crimes to be by a Jury They that love this Common-wealth will use all means to procure an Act of Oblivion and tender Consciences a just and reasonable satisfaction else we must all perish first or last A Bill Exemplified to the Purpose of these Sheets WHereas there are many Jealousies risen about Popery which makes it even necessary to the Peace of the Nation that the Protestant Interest be united and strengthned by all good and lawful Means And to this end there being this one proper Expedient to wit the removing the Occasioa of Divisions which several Persons do find to themselves in those late Injunctions which yet were intended to the same purpose of Concord in the Nation Be it Enacted That an Explanation of these Impositions and such Alleviations be allowed to the tenderly Considerate and peaceably Scrupulous as follows In the Act of Vniformity By the Declaration of Assent and Consent to all Things and every Thing contained in and prescribed by the Two Books Of common-Common-Prayer and of Ordering Priests and Deacons we understand not that these Books are in every minute particular infallible or free from that Defect which is incident to all Human Composure but that they are in the main Contents to be sincerely approved and used And we do therefore allow this Declaration to be sufficient if it be made to the use of the Book in the Ordinary Constant Lords-Day Service notwithstanding any Exceptions some may have against some Things in the By-Offices and Occasional-Service the Rubrick and otherwise And for the Ceremonies which are made and have been always and on all hands held to be only indifferent Things we think fit that they be left to the Consciences and Prudence of Ministers and People every where excepting the Cathedrals to use them or forbear them as they judge it most meet for their own and others Edification Provided that if any Person will have his Child Baptized with the Sign of the Cross or stands upon any thing else hitherto required by the Service-Book if the Minister himself scruple the Performance he shall have always some Assistant or Curate ready to do it These Materials were provided during the sitting of that Parliament which passed the Act of Uniformity and other the like Rigorous Acts and are therefore drawn up in the Form of an Explanatory Bill because it was supposed they were not like to Repeal their own Acts though they might be got to Interpret them But now we have a New Parliament and that after another also Dissolved we may expect quicker work Yet will the proposing these Things still to view have their use both for repressing such as have said The Non-conformists know not what they would have and setting some Measure to our own Desires and the Parliaments Condescensions about the same In the same Act By those Words in the Subscription that It is not lawful to take Arms against the King upon any Pretence whatsoever we intend no new or strange Thing but the rightful Maintenance only of the King's Authority against Rebellion according to the common Determination of Learned Writers in the Case of Subjection to Princes By the Words I abhor the Position of taking Arms by the Authority of the King against any Commissionated by him we never thought of Advancing the Arbitrary Commissions of the King above Law but by those Commissionated by him we understand such as are Legally Commissionated and in the Legal Pursuit of such Commission By the Clause which follows that requires a Renunciation of all Endeavour of any Alteration of Government in the Church or State we never meant to deny any Free-Born Subject his Right of Choosing Parliament-Men or Acting in his Place for the Common Good any way according to Law but that he shall Renounce all such Endeavour as is Seditious or not warranted by the Constitution of the Nation and particularly such an Endeavour as was Assumed in the late Times without and against the Consent of the King And for the rest of the Subscription which is enjoyned but to the Year 1682. Be it enacted that it cease presently and be no longer enjoyned Our Reasons for