Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n
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A35569
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The use of daily pvblick prayers in three positions
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Casaubon, Meric, 1599-1671.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing C816; ESTC R22950
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14,570
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31
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THE USE OF DAILY PVBLICK PRAYERS in three Positions LONDON Printed for Iohn Maynard 1641. ⧠The use of daily publike Prayers in three Positions I. That daily publick Prayers have been in use among Christians from the beginning so farre as persecutions gave leave and were accounted a principall part of Gods worship II. That those Prayers were at set houres in a prescript form not arbitrarie in either III. That the peace and prosperity of the publike Weal in the long life and happy preservation of pious Princes and other particulars and the good successe of Armies in times of warre have been thought by ancient Christians of purest times the fruit and effect in part of these publike Prayers and daily Service of the Church I. IT is most certain and acknowledged by all That in the Primitive times the holy Communion was publikely administred every day The word Liturgia is for the most part by ancient Writers appropriated to the Communion because that was the most solemn service though somtimes it is also taken more generally The form of administration which Saint Augustine saith in divers places was the same in all or almost all Christian Churches in his time I was instituted and prescribed by Saint Paul himselfe as is directly affirmed by Saint Augustine in his Epistle to Januarius Apostolus de hoc sacramento loquens statim subtexuit Caetera cum venero ordinabo unde intelligi datur quia multum erat ut in Epistola totum illum Agendi ordinem insinuare◠quem universa per Orbem servat Ecclesia ab ipso ordinatum esse quod nulla morum variatur diversitate Besides the Prayers at the Communion there were publike Morning and Evening Prayers and those daily also Mention of those Prayers is made in the Councill of Laodicea in the eighteenth Canon {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is That the forme or Liturgie of Prayers both at the Nones and at the Vespers ought always to be the same Saint Chrysostome upon the Psalmes occasionally speaking of divers Psalms and Hymnes which made part of the publike Prayers derives the first institution from the Fathers by which words it is likely hee understood men Apostolicall or at least of next antiquity to Apostolicall By him also it appeares that Christian people in his days were wont so studiously to frequent the publike Prayers of the Church that they knew by heart divers of the Psalmes that were ordinarily used What Saint Paul writes I exhort that first of all supplications prayers intercessions c. is by St. Augustine understood of the daily solemne Prayers and Supplications at the celebration of the Sacrament but by Saint Chrysostome upon the place is also expounded of the solemne Morning and Evening Prayers of the Church His words are these Every Priest is as it were a common Father of the whole earth and therefore ought to take care of all men as God doth to whom hee is consecrated Therefore saith the Apostle I exhort c. But what meaneth hee First of all that is in the daily service and this all the faithfull know how it is daily performed both in the Evening and in the Morning How wee make intercession for the whole World for Kings and all Magistrates or Governours c. Origen whose antiquity I hope is sufficiently known by al men doth often exhort the people to come to Church not onely upon Sundays and other Holidays but upon ordinary days also to heare the Word of God read and to be present at the Prayers of the Church yea and sharply reproves them that did it not as carelesse of their spirituall welfare and salvation See him for example in his tenth Homily upon Genesis throughout the whole Homily as where he saith Sine intermissione orandum Apostolus praecipit Vos qui ad orationes non convenitis quomodo impletis sine intermissione quod semper omit titis Sed Dominus praecipit vigilate orate ne intretis in tentationem Quod si illi vigilantes orantes semper verbo Dei adhaerentes tentationem tamen nequaquam effugerunt quid faciunt hi qui diebus tantum solennibus ad Ecclesiam conveniunt c. II. OF set houres because I doe not finde it much opposed I will not spend many words in vain If there be that make any question I shall refer him to Clemens Romanus a man of very authentike authority because Apostolicall and mentioned in the New Testament who presseth it very close in that unquestioned and so much commended Epistle of his to the Corinthians lately set out and made common by Learned Master Patrick Young out of the rich Treasures of his Majesties Royall Library It seemes by him that no small part of that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or good order required by Saint Paul whose mind he might best know as one of his Disciples 1 Cor. 14.40 doth consist in the due observing of those times and houres limited and prescribed by authority for our Prayers and Devotions But I desire his own words may be looked upon pag. 52.53 As for set forms of Prayers I should not have thought that I should have needed to have said much of that neither but that I have lately seen a Book which came to my hands under the recommendation of a Master-piece wherein I finde this strange assertion That liberty in prayer it is spoken of publike church-Church-prayers was not taken away and set and imposed formes introduced untill the time that the Arrian and Pelagian Heresies did invade the Church c. The Authour cals himself Smectymnuus both name and man being altogether unknown unto mee Which if they were not yet should I be worse than a Heathen if I should prefer any wordly love or friendship before the truth of God In some small things mistakes may happen without any great harme and may be passed over with as little danger Let us therefore consider whither that be not most true which hee peremptorily denies and then examine the validity of his objections For the first wee will begin with a great man both for his piety and his learning Saint Basil the Great who indeed was some yeers later then Arius but many yeers before Pelagius However that which he speaks of his times he so speaks it as that his testimony may stand for times long before A friend of his that was gone to travell had written to him that he would be mindfull of him in his Prayers to whom his answer is this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is To forget thee in my prayers is impossible except I shall first forget our work to which the Lord hath ordained us For thou canst not but remember being by the grace of God one of the faithfull the solemne Biddings or Praeconizatiōs of the Church how that in the holy Church wee make prayers for all our brethren that travell for all that are enrolled
for them that were not Christians that Constantine either made himselfe or caused to be made that Prayer which Eusebius speaks of and setteth downe in his twentieth Chapter that being the only Prayer that Constantine can in any probability so farre as appears by Eusebius be conceived to have composed if he composed any For as for the Guard that lived within his Palace to them were appointed saith Eusebius those Prayers which he cals {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And as concerning the Souldiers whereof Eusebius says some were Christians and some were not those that were Christians hee commanded them dispensing with them for their ordinary service or attendance upon that day to repair to publike Churches and there to celebrate the day those that were not even them hee compelled to meet together in the fields upon that day and there to prayse God in that form of Prayer which is recited by Eusebius The Prayer was this Te solum Deum agnoscimus te Regem profitemur te adjutorem invocamus per te victorias consequuti sumus per te hostes superavimus abs te praesentem foelicitatem consequutos fatemur futuram future that is for the time to come as is more plainly expressed by the Greek adepturos speramus tui omnes supplices sumus abs te petimus ut Constantinum Imperatorem nostrum una cumpiis ejus liberis quam diuâ—issimè nobis salvum victorem conserves Here you see is no mention of Christ at all nothing but might very well be said by a Heathen of those times as may appeare by divers of their Prayers yet extant the first words Ye solum Deum agnoscimus excepted which neverthelesse might bear a very coÌ„modious interpretation according to the tenets of divers of their own Philosophers and Wise men If any shall presse the words Omnibus militibus praescripsit to shew that it was common to all whether Christian or Heathen Souldiers I shall not stand upon that it being likely enough that the same Prayer upon other dayes was to be used by them all when they were mixed together and therefore of purpose so composed that it might be used by any whether Christians or Heathens of those times But in the mean time if it be granted as I doe not see how it can be denied that it was principally intended for the use of the Heathen Souldiers how can it be conceived that such a forme should be sound in a Book of common Prayers appointed for the use of Christians how much lesse inferred from hence as this man would gladly that the Christians of those days had no Book of common Prayers But I have not done with him yet I think it wil easily be granted unto me by what hath been said hitherto that it is very probable that this man in these his allegations out of Eusebius tooke more notice of the Latine then of the Greek Now if you look upon the Latine in the Chapter just before to wit the 17 you shall finde that plainly contradicted which this man would have inferred out of the eighteenth The words because it is but a short Chapter are these Cap. 17. Sed his quidem multa magnificentiora contemplari potes si animadvertas quemadmodum in ipsis Regiis Ecclesiae Dei formam instituerit populo in Ecclesia congregato ipse studiose exordiens Sumptis enim in manus libris vel sacrarum literarum contemplationi diligenter animum adhibebat vel constitutas cum universo Ecclesiae coetu preces reddebat What sence can any man in the World make of these words but that it was Constantine his custome taking the books themselves into his owne hands somtimes to turne the Holy Scriptures somtimes the Book of common {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the word in Eusebius Prayers according as the Order of the Liturgy by him there and then used required Now if any man shall aske mee for his owne satisfaction how it is in the originall Greeke I will ingenuously confesse that the Greek doth not so fully and distinctly expresse it as the Latine doth though it be as true that the Latine saith no more then what the Greek will very well beare And now I have done with this Author with whom I should not have had to do at all but that he came so crosse in my way in this point of set forms of Prayers Whether he or I be in the right I shall willingly submit to the judgement of any that are truly indifferent that is that seek the truth for it selfe and imbrace it where ever they find it not blindly zealous to maintaine their own side whether it be in a just cause or not If it shal appear to others as hitherto it doth unto me that this man as confident a man in his way of writing as ever I met with is much mistaken in this point then I shall yet before I leave him advise others whosoever shall happen to read this to pause awhile consider with themselves Much talke there is of a Reformation and for my part how hee can be accounted a true Christian that would not be heartily glad to see that amended what ever it be which to the prejudice of Gods Glory is amisse though perchance not to be amended without his particular losse and prejudice in worldly respects I know not Now then if that Reformation so much talked of every where and by many so much desired shall go on how farre such men as he so confident and so apt to mistake may either to direct or to informe bee trusted with it to the glory of that God which is the God of Truth to the content of men truly zealous that is zealous according to knowledge this is the thing and God is my witnesse I have no end in it but his glory that I would desire all men seriously to consider of But this by the way only and so I come to my third Position III. FIrst of all I would have it here remembred that what S. Paul writes 1 Tim. 2.1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Giving of thanks be made for all men For Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life c. is by S. Chrysostom S. Augustine expounded of the daily publike Prayers of the Church as hath already been declared Upon which I inferre that when the ancients speak of the power and efficaâ—ie of prayers and Supplications to the procuring of publike blessings as peace plenty c. they are which I think no reasonable man wil deny especially to be understood of daily publike Church-prayers So is Origen to be understood in those words of his in his eighth book contra Celsum thus rendred by Sigismundus Gelenius Postremò hortatur nos Celsus ut opem feramus Imperatori totis viribus geramus ejus auspâ—ciis justa piaque bella neve