Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	form_n	pray_v	set_a	5,316	5	11.1216	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25700	An Apology for the organs and prayers used in the Church of England in answer to some fanatical reflections upon bells and crutches in a letter from a gentleman in the city to his friend.		1692 (1692)	Wing A3551; ESTC R24710	2,895	2

AN APOLOGY FOR THE Organs and Prayers Used in the Church of England in Answer to some Fanatical Reflections upon BELLS and CRVTCHES in a Letter from a Gentleman in the City to his Friend IMPRIMATUR Nov. 23. 1692. GUIL LANCASTER SIR when you last entertained me with your good Company you were extreamly obliging especially in asserting the Doctrines of the Church of England to be pure and Apostolick and as I endeavoured to confirm you in that good Opinion I was at the same time as industirously concerned to abate your prejudice against some of her Ceremonies and as I have justly admired your even Temper moderate Spirit and sound Judgment therefore cannot but think you will pardon my freedom if for once I commit a Trespass upon your Patience and endeavour to confute your Error and remove your indigested Notions In our late Conference you appeared much for Union but you were so squeasie and cropsick that you needed to consult a Physician to clear your Stomach from Phlegm and Choler I remember you seemed much disturbed at our Bells and Crutches which if our Church would shake off we should find you in a better disposition to imbrace her Communion Sir if you cannot digest that you call popish and profane noise of Bells in our Steeples since you can not but know they were appointed for no other end but the Calling the People together to worship God you would do well to think of some other Instruments I confess I apprehend it more decent than winding the Horn blowing the Trumpet or beating the Drum Sir my kindness for your Personal Virtues is exceeding great and I would gladly imploy my utmost thoughts in contributing towards the satisfying your reasonable Scruples had I a Key to unlock your dark Metaphors and whereas you desire us to shake off our Bells and lay aside our Crutches I hope you will first prove we wear them As for the word Shake it is more proper to be used to Quakers but shaking of Bells I judge most applicable to Morrice-Dancers and such you represent us to be by your blind and obscure Sayings But before I proceed to discourse further upon this Topick I must unfold your meaning The Organs in our Churches which so highly offend your scrupulous Consciences and bugbear you out of our Communion sufficiently incite us to pity your Understandings and to prevail with you to lay aside Pride Prejudice and a peevish Spirit Can you upon Scripture Grounds warrant your departure from us and why are you hus transported with indignation against our Church-Discipline when you may be justly censured amongst those furious Zealots who as St. Paul bears Record had a Zeal but not according to Knowledge and since from Holy Scripture we have but this general Rule for the Discipline of the Church That all things be done decently and in order you ought to prove her injunctions incongruous to the one or the other or to assign some solid Reasons for such your unchristian Clamors but if the Wisdom and Experience of our Spiritual Pastors have thought fit to praise God with the Organ an Instrument proper to raise our dull Affections and if possible to charm us into the deepest contemplations of Love and Adoration of that incomprehensible Being which was and is and shall be for ever 'T is acknowledged these are but faint and imperfect Emblems of that perpetual Harmony we shall ere long be heartily ingaged in when Mortals must put on Immortality But you will object it is the Heart and not the Voice that renders this service acceptable to God as the Heart of a Good man is filled with Secret Love and warm'd with Internal Devotion so the Voice at that instant is an outward manifestation of our hearty and exalted Affections to the Supream Goodness and that Organical Sound mingling with the Voice becomes a further Instrument of praise by helping our bodily Infirmities chearing our Spirits quickning our Affections to a rejoycing in future Heavenly Hope As for those Excellent Forms of Prayer you term Crutches composed by those Holy men who sealed them with their Blood and thereby gave ample testimony they were illuminated by the Spirit of God the Church hath thought fit to retain at this day and the Excellency and Usefulness of those Prayers you have recommended to you by the learned Doctor Beveridge and God be praised such is the Christian Modesty and profound Humility of the Pious part of our Church that they are not ashamed to own themselves Spiritually lame blind and naked attended with a numerous train of bodily Imperfections crippled in their Memories and darkend in their Intellects and therefore they come not with God I thank thee but God be merciful to me Daily experience hath convinc'd them how often they are nonplust in the presence of Earthly Majesty and from thence they are fully instructed in their duty to God to offer up such prayers as contain a Catalogue of their wants and express an humble sense of the vast distance and disproportion betwixt God and his Creatures they endeavour to avoid indecent and saucy Expressions licentious Rambles vain Repetitions and bold and samiliar Talk with Almighty God which must either lessen Attention or at lest creat levity in the Hearer Hence it is such numbers of loose People flock to Doctor Burges's Meeting declaring they find more diversion in his Comical Discourse then in a Play and although I think these people spend their time but ill yet I can not but observe were there not a Merry Andrew there would be no Spectators and although we allow he may be an Instrument of doing some good to the meaner Capacities yet as some learned dissenting Divines have wisely observed by his indiscreet Behaviour he doth as much harm And if he were dismist the Pulpit till he has learnt to behave himself more reverently in it he could no longer serve the ends of Atheists and Papists who so readily take advantage to ridicule the Reformation and common Observation hath convinced me that such whose pride and fancy have advanc'd them above the use of Forms too often in their extempore prayers trump up such fulsome lose or impertinent babblings as are not allowable in sober Conversation How then shall the Judicious be able to say Amen to their Prayers When I pray by a Set Form my great Duty is to get my Heart to assent to the Words I am before fully satisfied they contain hearty Confessions humble Petitions and thankful Acknowledgments and in words proper and significant fitted even to the lowest capacity And I have altogether as much reason to believe the Spirit of God will be aiding my Infirmities in these plain and easie forms of Prayer as in the most flourishing extempore Addresses And has not our blessed Lord the Wisdom of the Father Saviour of the World recommended to our choice and use the most perfect and exact form of Prayer for was it not said writ and injoined our imitation and yet so impiously ignorant so fanatically conceited are many amongst us at this day especially of the Independant and Baptist or plunging Party that should their Teachers repeat the Lords Prayer they would immediately express their resentments in a sour and angry Aspect ye and perhaps reproach him as a formal lukewarm Fellow a Shepherd unfit to instruct a knowing Congregation As for the Liturgy and Collects of the Church of England I see no just exceptions against them and since forms of Prayer were constantly used by the Primitive Fathers and were highly esteemed by our first Reformers from Popery and are now retained in most of the reformed Churches in Europe What reason then have we to despise a form of sound words framed by men who gave such convincing evidences to the World by their Zeal for God's Glory and their constant perseverance in the true Religion that they were Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth and being abundantly influenc'd by the Holy Spirit they went on their way rejoycing to Heaven Praising and Glorifying God who had accounted them worthy to be witnesses to the Truth of the Gospel and in imitation of the Blessed JESUS the Author and Finisher of their Faith they despised their Lives imbraced the Flames and are undoubtedly placed at the Right-hand of God possessing an inheritance incorruptable and undefiled FINIS LONDON Printed by B. Griffin and are to be Sold at the Turk's Head in Fleet-street 1692.