Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
prayer_n church_n form_n impose_v 2,118 5 9.7547 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A55103 A Plea for moderation, or, A stricture upon the ecclesiasticks of our times 1681 (1681) Wing P2514; ESTC R16069 9,524 15

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

indifferent things when commanded by the Authority of the Magistrate are made necessary Answ The Interposal of Civil Authority in controverted Points of Divinity hath occasioned great Havock in the World the Magistrate is the Asylum which every Party when uppermost usually repairs to from the Pope to the Patriarch from the Patriarch to the Prelate from the Prelate to the Ecclesiasticks of inferiour Orders and Denominations In former days when the High Commission whose Judges were principally Ecclesiasticks was in force amongst us many Causes were out of Policy of the Clergy transmitted from thence into the Star-Chamber where the Temporal Lords were also Judges that so the Envy of their proceedings might be shared among the Secular Lords Though Church-men were in Ecclesiastical Causes the Chief Actors therein as appeared by the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who ushered in the Censures of Mr. Prynne Burton and Bastwick in a large and severe Speech made in that Court and in the present Plea Antiquum obtinent for the Truth is such Laws were made at the Instance of Ecclesiasticks and in their favour so that the Censures grounded thereupon are in effect their own but in another mode and diversification Let our present Ecclesiastical Governours declare that all Persecution for Conscience sake is an unlawful thing and let them improve their Interest in the Civil Magistrate for the abrogating of those Laws which countenance it and then it will appear at whose Doors the Severities complained of do lie theirs or the Magistrates I will not now dispute whether set and imposed Forms of Prayers called Liturgies be lawful yea or no This I shall say whatsoever some alledge for the Antiquity of them yet several of the Fathers of the Primitive Church sufficiently intimate to us that the Churches soon after the Apostles Days used the Personal Abilities of their Pastors in prayer without enjoyning any prescribed Forms Neither doth it appear as the Ministers authorised to review the Liturgy since His Majestie 's Restauration have observed in their due account that Christ ever appointed any such to an Office as to make prayers for other Pastors and Churches to offer up to God Page 24. and in p. 23. They say that the common-Common-Prayer in most of the Vulgar causeth a Relaxation of their Intention and Attention and a lazy taking up with a Corps or Image of Devotion even in the Service of the Lips while the Heart is little sensible of what is said The reason of which their Assertion may be fetcht from Page 23. of the said Discourse which take in their own Words Whatsoever can be expected duely to affect the Heart must keep the Intellect and all the Faculties awake in diligent Attention and Exercise and in the use of a Form which we have frequently heard and read the Faculties are not so necessitated and urged to Attention and serious Exercise as they be when from our understanding we set about the natural Work of Representing to others what we discern and feel Man's mind is naturally sloathful and will take its ease and remit its seriousness longer than it is drawn out by delight When we know before hand that we have no more to do but read a Prayer or Homily we shall ordinarily be in danger of letting our minds go another way and think of other matters and be senseless of the Work in hand Thus they Neither shall I enumerate the particular things excepted against in our prescribed Liturgy because the Primate of Ireland Arch-Bishop of York and other Episcopal Divines as well as others have had Meetings formerly for the Reformation of the Liturgy used in England before the late Civil Wars and drew up a Catalogue wherein the Cross in Baptisme was particularly laid aside of faults that needed mending yet to be seen in Print few of which have been amended in the Liturgy now in use I shall conclude all with that Objection of Conformists against their Dissenting Brethren That they are not now so considerable for Interest and other Respects as they were in Queen Elizabeth's Days and therefore justly slighted by them To which I answer 1. 'T was never accounted the part of a Wise and prudent General to despise and undervalue an Enemy though inferiour to him in number and other References Those who have done so have been convinced of their mistake and folly to their loss and shame 2. If those who have the Advantages of more liberal and ingenious Education by having all Stipends Exhibitions Allowances Salleries and other Helps running down to them alone in a Legal Channel such is the Case of Conformists do not surmount their ordinary Brethren who are deprived of those advantages certainly they would be very unexcusable both before God and Man 3. Neither is the Dissenting Party so inconsiderable on the mentioned accounts but that indifferent men can smile at the weakness of the Objection Who more assiduous in Labours than they Who more and greater searchers of Conscience in plain and profitable which is the best Preaching Who greater Examples of a pious and exemplary life I shall not instance in their Numbers because that of it self is no sufficient Argument We are not to follow a Multitude to do evil Vnus Athanasius contra totum Mundum Totus Mundus contra unum Athanasium is a known Adage in the Case of the Arians Only this is worthy to be observed that in the Memory of some now living when things ran in another Channel as to Ecclesiastical Government for I meddle not with the Civil then they do now but a few years yet then many Parishes in England began to be supplied with diligent Preachers though the present Form of our Church Government was not visible amongst us so that if ever King and Parliament in England should reduce things to the like circumstances who knows how many seven thousands may start up who are yet unknown to the Elijah's of Israel In Conclusion I think this with Truth and Modesty may be affirmed That the Labours of those called Non-Conformists are of great use and worthy to be retained in our English Church especially when so many designers are at Work to undermine and blow up the Protestant Reformed Religion to which the Party contended for is a great Bulwark For it is not our Ecclesiastical Discipline alone which can exclude Popery unless the clear and saving Doctrines of the Gospel be effectuary urged upon the Consciences of men for the establishing of their Hearts in the Truth against the Dark and Superstitious Positions of the Papal Church And in this Work Non-Conformists are usefully imployed and that out of a Principle and Love to Truth as far as men can judge because they proceed therein against many Discouragements Slanders Evil Reports and in the midst of many sufferings of their own all which fight against and might worst them if they were not divinely assisted from above FINIS