Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	ceremony_n	church_n	rite_n	2,015	5	9.5563	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25580	An ansvver to the Call to humiliation: or, A vindication of the Church of England, from the reproaches and objections of W. Woodward, in two fast sermons, preach'd in his conventicle at Lemster, in the county of Hereford, and afterwards published by him.		1691 (1691)	Wing A3394; ESTC R213077	38,282	42

AN ANSWER TO THE Call to Humiliation OR A VINDICATION OF THE Church of England From the Reproaches and Objections of W. Woodward in Two Fast Sermons Preach'd in his Conventicle at Lemster in the County of Hereford and afterwards Published by him Printed for Edward Robinson Junior Bookseller in Ludlow 1691. AN ANSWER TO THE Call to HVMILIATION OR A Vindication of the Church of England WHEN I first met with this importunate Call to Humiliation I wonder'd how it came into the Head of that Minister to call upon the Church of England in a Conventicle he might as well have call'd upon the Socinian Church in Poland or the Quakers in Pensylvania How absurd was it to summon the Church of England to the Stool of Repentance in a Presbyterian Assembly at Lemster and to proclaim a Fast for Persecution to those whom he pretends were persecuted by her But thô the Church was out of his Audience yet it was matter of great Edification to his Hearers to calumniate and reproach her and I presume at the next gathering he was well rewarded for it See how this Minister keeps his Days of Humiliation he Fasts notoriously for Strife and Debate instead of healing our Wounds he enlarges and enflames them he sets forth the Sufferings of his Dissenters with Hyperbole's and lying aggravations to what purpose but to exulcerate and enrage them as if he were sent in the Spirit of Elijah he calls in effect for Fire from Heaven upon us The Prophanation of our Fast Day was not enough for his Invectives withal he could find but little work of Humiliation for his own Sectaries but with loads of Sackcloth and Ashes he overwhelms our Church and in a word he has laid out his whole Gift of Calling and Clamouring and Railing upon it The best Apology against such a Libel would be Patience and Silence and the best Answer that which Mr. Hooker made to certain Reasons and Raileries of the Puritans to his Reasons No and to his Raileries Nothing But there is sometimes a necessity of answering some Persons according to their folly the applause and triumph with which this Pamphlet has been cried up by his followers the Confidence wherewith they pronounce every thing unanswerable that is not answer'd and the Complement of * p. 27. Dumb Dogs which this Holy Rabshakeh has bestowed upon us do make it necessary to say something in our vindication and to shew how easie it is to defend our Church against the feeble Assaults of a Lemster Conventicle In answer to his Two Sermons as he calls them I will consider 1. His Declamations about Persecution 2. The Reasons and Objections which he pleads for his Non-conformity Days of Humiliation are at all times necessary to the Church of Christ which while it is Militant will be never so far without Spot and Blemish as not to stand in need of publick Explations but when the Judgments of God are either imminent or present and the unbounded wickedness of a Nation do force them down from Heaven then certainly is the time to weep to Sanctify a Fast and to call all the Inhabitants of the Land to a Publick Repentance Our Church on such occasions hath contented her Self to follow the example of Religious Men in Scripture and to prescribe such general Confessions as are universally true of all and particularly applicable to the Case of every one there is a Confession in that last Office so full and comprehensive that no one who is not much in love with Cavil can accuse the insufficiency of it But this Minister is dissatisfied with it he hath searched among * See p. 10 11. the accursed stuff as he stiles it of Ecclesiastical Affairs and after much pains in rummaging * See p. 10 11. he finds that the accursed thing * See p. 10 11. lies hid under the covering of Decency and Order Penal Laws Laws for Vniformity Subscriptions Declarations Liturgies Articles Laws for Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer Thus one whole Constitution is accursed in his Opinion even the Articles of our Religion are not excepted thô approv'd by all the Protestant Churches and Seal'd with the Blood of Martyrs and the Prayers of all Churches for at least 1●00 Years together have been nothing but Curses and as Achan's Sacriledge an Abomination to the Lord. But Persecution is the great Rock of Offence and he is very angry at the Compilers of the Office because they have not mention'd it in the Confession he cannot forgive a certain * The Bishop of Sarum Bishop in particular who he thinks assisted in composing the Form and had before Declar'd that Persecution had not a little contributed to fill up the measures of the sins of a Church See his Ep. Ded. and p. 11. and that they who were guilty ought seriously to profess their Repentance of it But he observes That he said this before he was a Bishop which is to insinuate that it is no wonder he should now prevaricate and that he was fall'n from Grace by taking a Bishoprick on him But here he had an occasion of shewing his Spight at the Order and even a Reconciling Bishop could have no Quarter from him Now for once let Persecution be as heinous a Sin as he can make it and let it be granted that many Church men have been guilty of it Yet Why must it be particularly confess'd in a general Humiliation Why more than Drunkenness Perjury Blasphemy or Whoredom Would he have every individual Confess that he has been a Persecutor a Drunkard a Blasphemer and a Whoremaster If many are innocent of these Crimes so they are of Persecution There are thousands of Congregations that never persecuted any one and yet this Vnjust Judge would force them to plead Guilty of it Be the Sin never so Epidemical yet why should I confess it if I am not Guilty And as for those that are let him read over the Confessions and he will find they are in general Expressions included in it and general Confessions are sufficient because no others can be accommodated to so many millions of Christians but nothing will please that Minister unless the whole Church lye prostrate at his Feet and submit to the Discipline he imposes and then perhaps he would think her sufficiently humbled and condescend to pardon her Let us now reflect a little on the extremity of their Sufferings as he is pleas'd to represent them and one single Paragraph out of all his Tragical Aggravations will be sufficient He assures us * p. 4. That it is as clear as the Sun that for near 30 years last past 1600 Ministers of the Gospel have suffer'd very hard things upon the account of Conscience by reason of great Fines and long Imprisonments At the Restauration there were many Mininsters ejected who had either intruded themselves into the Freeholds of others or had Vsurp'd their Benefices in the times of Schism and Rebellion without lawful Qualisications

signifies only fervency of Spirit when it is appled to the People but he thinks it a very plain Case that a Minister cannot properly be said to pray to the utmost of his Ability when he doth not pray to the utmost of his Ablity and may not the same thing be said of the People also If the Minister use a Form may he not likewise pray with all his might or as well as he is able and is not this a plain Equivocating upon the word Ability take it first for fervency and then for a faculty of composing and the Contradiction is solved and the Fallacy Transparent The other Proof is out of Tert. Apol. cap. 1. Tertullian sine Monitore quia de pectore oramus we pray without a Monitor because we pray out of the Heart But this can be no Proof against a Form of Prayer sor 1. They who joyn with a Minister that prays Extempore do pray as much with a Monitor and have a Prayer dictated to them as much as if they joyned in a prescribed Liturgy And 2. Praying out of the Heart Schol. Hist part 1. ●p 46. c. may signifie either saying a Prayer by Heart or secret mental Prayer without words or praying heartily sincerely and affectionately de anima innocenti de Spiritis Sancto as Tertullian a little after with a prayer proceeding from an innocent Soul and the Holy Spirit moving and exciting it These interpretations are probable and consistent with the use of Liturgies and consequently from this passage no Argument can be drawn against them Yet from thence this Minister takes occasion to vent his Malice against Liturgies and to reproach them as an heathenish way of Praying Now if our Saviour prescribed a Form to his Disciples and it is impossible for him to prove the the contray then this reproach is Blasphemy might not an Atheist say as well That Prayer it self is an Heathenish practice or a Quietest Comment in Entychium p. 55. taht vocal Prayer is a Heathenish way of praying Mr. Selden thought it probable that the Heathens learnt to use set Forms from the Example of the Jewish Church and he cites Authorities to prove it and View of the Directory Dr. Hammond produces out of Plato and Alexander ab Alex. these two Reasons of that practice which he thinks may pass Christian least evil things should be asked in stead of good and least any thing should be said Preposterously in their Prayers and therefore the practice of the Heathens is so far from being a prejudice to Liturgies that it is a solid Argument for them Whether either or both the Example of Gods Church or the Catholick reason of mankind were the Original of it the universal use of them among Jews and Christians and Heathens is an impregnable Proof of their expediency and can be ascribed to no other cause but the voice of God or Nature 3. He transcribes this Objection after Mr. Clarkson when the Christians were so numerous in Constantinople that it was thought necessaryto dispose of them in several Churche the Emperour Constantine Euseb de vita Const lib. 4. c. 35. 〈◊〉 to Eusebius for 50 Bibles for the use of those Churches but there is no mention of any one common Prayer Book Eusebius commends Constantine for observing in his Court the manner of the publick Service in the Church he first imoplyed his mind in the Meditation of the Scriptures and then with those who dwelt in his Palace he repeated Ibid cap. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the authorized Prayers and it is known that he himself composed a Prayer which he Ibid cap. 19 20. prescribed to his Army And after such convincing Proofs can a Negative Argument be thought considerable enough to Ballance them Is it imaginable that Eusebius intended to give an exact Inventory of all that was provided for those Churches Constantine sends to Eusebius in Palastine for 50 Bibles probably because the best Copies might be there most easily procured does it therefore follow that no prayer Books were provided at Constantinople where it was easie to procure them and if we should send to Holland for Bibles when we want them would it not be as plain a Demonstration that we have no prayer Books in England Sue Schol. Hist part 2d p. 48. c. He pretends That when Forms of Prayer began to be used ever Church made use of what Forms they pleased and for this he cites Socrates Scholas lib. 5. the passage he intends is in Chap. 22. In which the Historian reflecting upon a division among the Novatians about the time of keeping Easter and shewing that antiently in different Churches it was observed at different times without breach of Communion does pass from thence to observe the diversity of other different usages in the Christan Chruches as the different Customs of keeping the Fasts before Easter the Marriages of the Clergy and the different Rites and times of Prayer and interpreting Scripture in many Provinces and Countreys The he tells us that the Novations in the Hollespont did not observe the same manner of praying with those of Constantinople and concludes that upon the whole every where and in all the Worships or Rites of Prayers you cannot find that they agree together two in the same thing and this is the passage they insist on But 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie Ceremonies and Rites of Prayer for of different Ceremonies he was before Discoursing and then the Passage will be no proof of different Forms 2. Admitting that he speaks of different Prayers this diversity is not spoken of single Congregations but of several Nations and Dioceses such as for instance Jerusalem Cyprus Constantinople 3. A little after we have the reason fo this variety I judge says Socrates that the Bishops who presided in several Gages were the cause of it and how They transmitted their own Vsage as a Law to those who should come after them thus the cause of this diversity was not Liberty but Law and Prescription 4. Immediately after he vindicates the Nicene Council which had determined the Controversie about Easter and prescribed a certain time to keep it But diversity in praying and the different times of Easter are by this Historian proposed as things alike indifferent and if Church Authority may determine and prescribe in one case so it may also in the other Thus we have the great Example of the Nicene Fathers for prescribing and in stead of the Liberty they pretend to the Prescription of set Forms or Rights of Prayer to whole Dioceses and Nations In short the design of the Historian is to shew that there were divers Customs in the Church in Things indifferent and that the Communion of the Church ought not to be divided for them Now Custom is a Law introduced by Practice and Law is a restraint upon Liberty And if indifferent things may be prescribed by Custom they may be prescribed by