Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	father_n	lord_n	preface_n	2,582	5	10.5359	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91267	A seasonable vindication of free-admission, and frequent administration of the Holy Communion to all visible church-members, regenerate or unregenerate. From the institution, precept, president of Christ himself; the doctrine, practice of the primitive Church, fathers, councils, Christians: the confessions, articles, records, chief writers of our own and other reformed churches: the dangerous consequents, effects, schisms arising from the disusage, infrequency, monopoly of this sacrament, to visible or real saints alone; and suspension of all others from it, till approved worthy upon trial. And that upon meer Anabaptistical, and papistical false principles, practices, (here discovered) unadvisedly embraced, imitated, asserted, exceeded by sundry over-rigid, reforming ministers; to our Saviours dishonour, our Churches great disturbance, their own, their peoples prejudice; and the common enemies, and seducers grand advantage. / By Will: Prynne of Swainswick Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne·	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing P4070; Thomason E495_3; ESTC R203285	81,072	108

to be denyed to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike A universal affirmative admitting all unto and sequestring no unexcommunicated Christian from both or either parts of the Lords Supper Which the Confession of the Protestant Churches in Saxony thus back b Article 22. Of the Sacraments The Church also is discerned from other Gentiles by certain Signs and Ceremonies instituted of God and usually called Sacraments as are Baptism and the Lords Supper Which notwithstanding are not only Signs of a Profession but much more as the antient fathers said Signs of Grace that is they be Ceremonies added to the promise of the Gospel touching Grace that is touching the free remission of sins and touching reconciliation and the whole benefit of our redemption the which are so instituted that every man may use them because they be pledges and testimonies which declare that the benefits promised in the Gospel do appertain to every one For the voice of the Gospel is general this use doth bear witness that this voice doth appertain to every one which useth the Sacraments What other Protestant Churches Confessions affirm to this purpose you may read at large in the Harmony of their Confessions Sect. 10 11 12 13 14 15. With what colour of Piety Iustice Equity Conscience Zeal Prudence Christianity Charity then dare any of our Independent Presbyterian or other Ministers seclude debar not only pretended ignorant scandalous unregenerate Visible Church-members nor actually or legally excommunicated but even true regenerate godly Christians and their whole Churches Parishes if not some whole Towns Cities from this holy Supper and Communion from month to month yea year to year upon false pretences that it belongs not to them that they shall prophane the Sacrament cast pearls before Swine give holy things to dogs damn poyson their own and their peoples souls if they give the Bread Cup of the Lord unto them and make visible and real Saint ship fitness worthinesse the sole rule ground of right interest in and admission to this Sacrament against the professed Doctrine Practice of all former ages Churches And all in truth to erect a more than arbitrary Ecclesiastical Papal Tribunal over Christs own Sacraments and their Parishioners consciences persons to admit to or seclude all and every of them from the Lords Supper at their pleasures upon their own terms and times alone the sole true round of this impious sacrilegious unchristian antichristian Innovation for it deserves no better Epithites 3ly That the Apostles Primitive Church Christians Fathers freely and usually admitted all visible Christians whatsoever to the Communion of the Lords Supper of discretion to examine themselves whom they freely admitted to Baptism Prayer hearing of the Word or any other publike Ordinances of Gods worship b enjoyning them all under pain of Excommunication when ever they heard the Word or met together in publike to receive the Lords Supper likewise in common together and excommunicating such who communicated not in this sort as men working the trouble and disorder of the Church That they required exacted no other no greater no solemner self-examination preparation fitness visible worthiness or real graces in the when they came to receive the Lords Supper but the very same they demanded expected from them when ever they came to be baptized pray hear read the Word or converse with God in any other sacred Ordinances of his worship God himself requiring the like examination qualification preparation fitnesse in all other holy duties and approaches to him in his word as in this duty as is evident by Eccles. 5. 1 2. Lam. 3. 40 41. Psal. 26. 6. Isay 1. 16 17 18. 1. 15 16. 2 Chron. 30. 17 18 19 20. Exod. 12. 48. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jam. 1. 5 6 7 21. Mat. 22. 12. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Hebr. 12. 1. 1 Tim. 2. 8. Heb. 4. 2. 2 Pet. 1. 5. to 19. Luke 8. 18. Mar. 4. 24. Rom. 14. 23. and other texts compared with 1 Cor. 11. 28 29. and Christs c sodain institution and celebration of this Sacrament at his last Supper without giving any previous Notice of it to his Disciples to prepare themselves for its worthy reception their former preparation fitnesse to eat the Paschal Supper and hear Christs heavenly instructions given them Iohn 13. 14 15 16 17. being deemed by Christ himself a sufficient preparative to communicate with him at his Table Upon what true ground of conscience piety justice reason or religion then can any Ministers now seclude all or any of their baptized Parishioners of sufficient capacity to examine themselves whom they freely constantly admit to communicate with them in baptism prayer preaching singing Psalms hearing reading Gods word and other ordinary or extraordinary publike duties of Gods worship from the Communion of the Lords Supper only or deem them unprepared unqualified unworthy to communicate in this Ordinance alone when as they deem them sufficiently qualified prepared worthy to converse with God and the most regenerated Saints in all or any other publike Ordinances but this Or by what divine warrant from Gods own Word our Saviours his Apostles the Primitive Fathers Christians the * Protestant Churches or B●shop Jewels Doctrine or Practice can they now over-rigidly exact●a more transcendent serious diligent special examination preparation qualification worthinesse fitnesse holinesse in their people when they resort to the Communion of the Lords Supper than when they come to hear read the word fast pray receive the Sacrament of Baptism give thanks or sing praises unto God or else seclude or deem them for unworthy Receivers who can eat or drink nothing but their own damnation Yea with what conscience reason justice can any Communicants neglect refuse delay to receive the Lords Supper upon this pretext alone that they are wholly unworthy unfit unprepared only for this duty when publikely administred in the Churches whereof they are members and they there present at all or any other sacred publike Ordinances in which they then repute themselves not unfit unworthy unqualified unprepared to converse with God and communicate with other Christians but in this duty alone Doubtlesse the serious consideration of Bishop Jewels St. Ambrose and St. Augustines words forecited touching due preparation to all holy duties with that of Chrysostom If thon be not worthy to receive the Communion then thou art not worthy to be present at Prayers and of the Primitive Christians daily communicating as well as hearing and praying will rectifie this common received Error both in Ministers and People now made the principal plea in barre excuse justification by the one magisterially to sequester repell their Parishioners from the Lords Table and by the people voluntarily to withdraw debar themselves from it against Christs own precept and their bounden duties to the prejudice if not peril of their souls Which I write not to make any carelesse or

communicating with him contrary to the nature and institution of the Communion than suffer the party to die in discomfort and be swallowed up in despair without it But many of our Ministers are now so cruel and hard-hearted to their Parishioners that they will upon no terms or intreaties daily frequently or yet at all deliver the Communion publikely to them in the Church in their healths that so they might not stand so much in need of it in their sickness as i Bishop Jewel adviseth to prevent this Popish Mischief and the Primitive Christians Fathers practised Neither will they administer or send it privately to them at their deaths as the Primitive Fathers did even to excommunicate persons on their death-beds to comfort their hearts strengthen their faiths and keep their souls from sinking in despair In this therefore they are more uncharitable injurious tyrannical than the very rigidest Popish Priests and Popes unto their People 9ly That k the Popes and Popish Priests having discontinued the daily Communion of the Lords Supper with the people have instead thereof set up Private Masses wherein the people stand by only as Ga●ers and Spectators onely of the Priests eating and drinking but yet must not eat drink or communicate with them at the Altar or Lords Table they ●either calling them thereto by words or gestures nor having any preparation for them if called making them believe the hearing and seeing of what they do is sufficient whereby they increase the Negligence of the people and discourage them from the Holy Commnion Which Practice though meerly Popish and Antichristian l contrary to the precept and practice of Christ and his Apostles the Custom Doctrine Canons of the Primitive Fathers Churches the m Confessions Articles of all forein Churches and of the n Church of England professedly condemned declamed against by the Exhortation prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer ratified by sundry Acts of our Protestant Parliaments by Bishop Jewel and all former Protestant orthodox Writers Yet Dr. Drake in his Antiquaeries Preface p. 6. and his Boundary to the holy Mount p. 160 161 c. herein plays the down-right Pope Popish Priest not only in imitating but thus justifying pleading for this Practice as fit to be introduced in all our Protestant Churches Scandalous Persons yea Heathens may be present at the Lords Supper and all Sacramental actions and that with a great deal of profit The fruit of the visible and audible Word may here be attained by bare presence c. But they must not be admitted to but debarred from the participation of the Sacramental Bread and Wine Mark his reason By presence benefit may be gained but the Danger of eating and drinking unworthily cannot be incurred without actual receiving A better solider Argument for Private Popish Masses if true than any produced by Mr. Harding Bellarmine or any Romish Pope or Priest In which passage he proclaims open war against the o Institution Practice Doe this c. of our Saviour who instituted this Sacrament not to be Gazed upon but eaten and drunken by all present admitted no bare Spectators but Gave it to ALL his Disciples Yea he therein bids defiance to the Holy Ghost and St. Paul himself 1 Cor. 10. 2 3 4. 16 17. c. 11. 22. to 34 to the p Ite Missa est Qui non communicat det locum Custom Doctrine of the whole Primitive Church Fathers Christians as Bishop Iewel will at large instruct him and more particularly to the 25 Article of the Church of England The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And this Exhortation Resolution in our English Liturgy Whereas you offend God so sore in refusing his holy Banquet I admonish exhort and beseech you that unto this unkindnesse you will not adde any more Which thing you shall do let this Doctor and others mark it well if ye stand by as Gazers and lookers on those that do communicate and be not partakers of the same your self this makes the fault much greater and is a further contempt having the Mysteries of Christ in derision Is it not said Take ye and eat Take and drink ye all of this With what face then will ye hear these words Will not this be a neglecting despising and mocking the Testament of Iesus Christ c Wherewith other * Protestant Churches in their very confessions accord And St. Chrysostom long before them ad Ephe●●o● Hom. 3. Whosoever standeth by refusing to communicate is wicked and shameless and unworthy to be partaker of the Prayers Thou wil● say I am unworthy to be partaker of Christs Mysteries thou art then unworthy to be partaker of the Prayers Thou mais● no more stand here th●n one of the Catechumeni or Novices that was never Christened Thus Dum stulti vitia vitant in contraria currunt This New Doctor will on no means admit ignorant scandalous or unregenerate Christians to receive the Sacrament for fear they should eat and drink their own damnation but yet defines they may be present at it and all the Sacramental actions without receiving and that too with a great deal of Profit What I pray To make their fault much greater to commit a further contempt than if they unworthily received them by having the Mysteries of Christ in derision and neglecting despising and mocking the Testament of Jesus Christ as our whole Church resolves against this his Popish Whimsy contradictory to it self For if they may see and hear the Sacramental actions and administrations worthil● and with a great deal of profit no doubt they may also receive it with much more profit and comfort too and it will Nonplus this grand Rabbi to resolve us how any can be a fit a worthy a profitable Auditor and Spectator of this Sacrament and yet an unfit unworthy unprofitable yea damned Receiver Let him therefore not disown retract this his Popish Dotage Contradiction Absurdity to which he is driven to avoid the dint of my q former Arguments against his absurd new-found Suspension and excommunication of men by way of Church censure for notorious Scandals only from the actual reception of the Lords Supper but not from being Spectators at it and freely admitting them as unexcommunicate true Churchmembers to all other Ordinances without the least seclusion from them For which Mr. Iohn Humfrey hath since sufficiently schooled him in his Rejoynder to his Boundary 10ly That the Popish Priests having abolished daily weekly frequent Communions together with their people in the Church who ought to receive the Sacrament and remember the death Passion of our Saviour as often as the Priests themselves do yet to keep a perpetual remembrance of Christs death oblige themselves to say Privase Masses daily communicate alone without the people and offer up Christ daily in sacrifice to his Father wherein appeareth their wanton folly that they

5ly I desire such Ministers who have preached printed cryed up this false rule of admission to and administration of this Sacrament sadly to consider the retaliating justice of God upon them arising from this their error and neglect of administring it That whiles they have peremptorily debarred their Parishioners and people from the Lords Supper and laid it quite aside as denying or doubting their real Sain●ship many of their people have upon their own principles turned Anabaptists Independents Quakers Seekers yea publikely in their Churches Pulpits c Writings proclaimed them to be no real Saints or Ministers of Christ at all but Baals Priests Seducers of the people false Prophets Hirelings Hypocrites Deceivers Impostors Antichrists fit only to be cast forth unto the Dunghil trodden under foot of men deserted both their Church assemblies Ministry and withheld their Tithes I beseech them sadly to ponder how God hath thus repaid them in their own false coin and to acknowledge his justice on them in it 5ly Let them consider this notable passage of d Abbot Theon about 530 years after Christ That mens sins ought not to deterre them from but excite them to the frequent participation of the Lords Supper and that those who deem themselves worthy receivers as these supercilious secluders of their Parishioners from the Sacrament doe are most unworthy Nec tamen ex eo debemus nos a Dominica Communione suspendere quia nos agnoscimus peccatores sed ad eam magis ac magis est et propter animae medicinam et purificationem Spiritus avidè festinandum veruntamen ea humilitate mentis ac fide ut indignos nos perceptione tantae gratiae judicantes remedia potius nostris vulneribus expetamus Ali●quin nec anniversaria quidem dignè est praesumenda Communio ut quidam facunt qui in Monasteriis consistentes ita Sacramentorum coelestium dignitatem sanctificationem ac meritum metiuntur ut aestiment ea non nisi sanctos immaculatos debere praesumere et non Potius ut sanctos mundosque nos sua participatione perficiant Qui profectò majorem arrogantiae praesumptionem quam declinare sibi videntur incurrunt quia vel tunc cum ea percipiunt dignos se ejus perceptione dijudicant Multo enim justius est ut cum hac cordis humilitate qua credimus et fatemur illa sacrosancta mysteria nunquam pro merito nos posse contingere singulis ea Dominicis diebus ob remedium nostrorum aegcitudinem praesumamus quam ut vana persuasione cordis elati vel post annum dignos eorum participio nos esse credamus Wherefore as the blessed antient Martyr e Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians thus exhorts them to the frequent reception of the Eucharist Date itaque operam ut crebrius congregemini ad Eucharistiam et gloriam Dei Quando enim saepius in idem loci convenitis labefactantur vires Satanae et ignita illius ad peccat●m jacula irrita resiliunt which f Joannes C●●machus likewise seconds pressing the frequent reception of the Eucharist upon these and other Grounds which the primitive Christians daily and frequently received in common as the marginal g Authors besides those forecited and Eusebius De Demonstratione vangelica lib. 1. c. 10. p. 300. inform us So let our rigid Innovators now imitate this their practice for the future lest they increase the power kingdom of Satan their own and their Parishioners sins and damnation by debarring them from this spiritual balm and soveraign means of their Salvation instead of making them more worthy and prepared to receive it or lesse sinfull by their Suspension from it 6ly Let them ponder that the Primitive Fathers and Christians though they were over-rigid to such as fell away to Idolatry through fear in times of persecution yet upon their repentance they admitted them to receive the Lords Supper at home in private when they lay sick upon their death-beds though they stood actually excommunicated from the Church and all publike Ordinances to the end they should not be swallowed up utterly in despair but die comfortably as the Members of Christ as h Bishop Iewel proves at large by the story of Serapion and Concil. Carthaginense 6. Can. 13. With what hearts faces consciences then can these Cathari and Novations deny this Sacrament now to their Parishioners who earnestly desire and long after it both in their healths sicknesses and at their very deaths though never actually excommunicated nor guilty of such Grosse Apostacy to Idolatry when as they freely admit them to their Church-assemblies and all other publick Ordinances contrary to the practice of the Primitive Churches Fathers who cast all such as were excommunicated for any scandalous sins crime or heresie ont of their Churches debarred them from their Congregations and all Christian Communion with them in prayer or any other publike Ordinances as well as in the Lords Supper which is most apparent by the Excommunications and presidents of i Serapion k Numerianus l Philip and m Theodosius the Emperors n Apoiinarius and o Arius the Hereticks with others recorded in Ecclesiastical Histories By this pregnant Testimony of Tertullian in his Apology Summumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis ita deliquerit ut a Communione orationis et Conventus et omnis sancti commercii relegetur By these phrases of p St. Cyprian whereby he expresseth the nature and use of Excommunication in his age Arcere cohibere ejicere excludere pellere rejicere ab Ecclesia Seperare a Christi corpore c. By these expressions of q Origen Ab Ecclesiae corpore desecari per Ecclesiae Praesides Auferatur è populo Dei eradicetur et tradatur Satana Is qui praesidet populo regit Ecclesiasticam disciplinam ejicit eum de Congregatione fidelium In Ecclesiis Christi consuetudo tenuit talis ut qui manifesti sunt in magnis delictis ejiciantur ab oratione Communi c. By this phrase of r Gregorius Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neo-Caesaria against covetors plunderers of Captives and other mens goods for filthy gain whom he resolves to be a Dei Ecclesia abdicati which Theodorus Balsamon Patriarch of Antioch thus expounds Ecclesia abdicatus id est ejectus et al●onus dicuntur enim abdicati filii quando propter aliqua crimina ab haereditate paterna alienantur In tempore autem talis calamitatis existimare aliorum calamitatem esse sui lucri occasionem est impiorum hominum et Dei invisorum et qui omnem improbitatem superant Unde visum est eos abdicare pro eo quod est aperte Ecclesia expellere et a sidelium multitudine separare ne propter ipsos Dei ira ad omnes veniat c. Which I wish the plundering Covetous Saints of our age would consider being all ipso jure excommunicated persons Qui ea rapiunt