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
A61101	A Protestants account of his orthodox holding in matters of religion at this present in difference in the church, and for his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on : humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Spelman, John, Sir, 1594-1643.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4940; ESTC R12772	24,078	35

we may no more for respect of persons be they Popes or whatsoever call good evill or evill good then we may for respect of persons break the Commandments of God Nor is it more to be abhorred as a popish corruption to use the Ordinances of Popes which are not wicked Ordinances in themselves than blessing the people of in the words wherewith Balaam blessed them is to be abhorred as a Balaamish corruption for when by the names of Popish Jewish Heathenish c. we condemne any thing we all intend that the thing condemned is of the nature of those things wherein they were especially corrupt and not of the nature of their doings which were neither good nor evill and much lesse of the nature of those wherein they excelled So as to be popish simply being no argument of necessary faultinesse we must see whether our Liturgie partakes of any popish corruption or no To come readily to the matter when in all the whole Frame of our Liturgie there is no Worship nor Innovation but of the true God onely neither is he worshipped any other way than by the sole and immediate mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ there first can be no Idolatrous corruption in the Liturgie Secondly It cannot be Antichristian because that contrary to the proper work of Antichrist which is to deny the Son and the Father and as God in the Temple of God to exalt himself above all that is called God the Liturgie thorowout the whole course thereof makes an exact acknowledgement adoration and exaltation above all things whatsoever and as it acknowledges them in profession so there is not any thing in it whereby they are denyed in practice So as to call it Antichristian is a malicious slander against the clear truth examined by the Light and Rule of Gods Word Lastly It cannot be superstitious neither for howsoever in the performance of it there may be some few Ceremonies brought in which rightly weighed do perhaps conduce more to worldly solemnity and ostentation in Religion than to true and necessary religious decency and reverence and therefore would be laid down yet being things otherwise indifferent introduced for decency onely and not pressed as things of any other necessity they can at the worst be but errours of Judgement mistaking what is decent and orderly they cannot be superstitious seeing they are not made matters of Religion but of decency and order without which nothing ought to be done When then according to true understanding and intention nothing is meant popish but what partakes of the superstitious corruptions of the Popes the Liturgy of the English Church must needs be acquit and discharged not onely of the infamous calumny of being Idolatrous Antichristian and suspicious but even also of that malicious aspersion of popish And then it will follow That the censures of those sinners against their own souls who in and for these things do falsly judge censure and condemn their Mother Church and renounce obedience to her and communion with her because as they suppose she is popish superstitious idolatrous Antichristian their unjust censures I say will prove the condemnation of themselves both of uncharitablenesse of self-conceit and of insolent exalting themselves against the Church of God at least if not of Antichristian persecution of it also and the more for this That while they promise liberty and freedome from superstition they themselves become slaves unto superstition making a matter of Religion not to obey the Ordinance of their Church in things indifferent and where the Word of God doth not forbid obedience but command it This briefly touching the generall exceptions Popish Superstitious Idolatrous Antichristian As for the particular exception That in our Liturgy all prayer praise and thanksgiving is in a set Form a device of mans not the command of God a muzling of the Ministers spirit a nurse of idlenesse and means of neglecting the gifts and graces of God c. We must consider 1. That there is not any expresse Scripture against set Forms of prayer and therefore the use of it is not against any expresse command of God 2. All Christian Churches thorowout the world as well the Greek and Eastern where Popery never raigned as these our Western Churches when once they attained a setled Government have in all ages served God in set Forms of Divine Service yea even the reformed Churches beyond Sea use some set Forms And for our set Liturgy if any man lift to be contentious against it we can truely say It is the Custome of our Church and also of the Churches of God and then the depravers of it will prove to be despisers of Authority and advancers of their own private judgement against the Universall Judgment of the Church Catholique 3 Under the Law there were set Forms of publike Confessions Thanksgivings Blessings c. which being no part of the Ceremoniall is warrant enough for Christians to use the like 4. The Psalms of David which as they abound with all those necessary parts of Gods publike service confession of sins prayers Praise and Thanksgiving so especially with Prayer many of them having that Title A Prayer they were not onely used publikely by both the Jewes Church and the Christians but were penned to that end and dedicated to the Priests that had the Office of praising God and were most excellent in those kindes of Musick to which they were set and the most excellent passages of praise and prayer in them had the word Selah added to them to the end that in the publike use of them those passages might be iterated and said or sung over again Also our Saviour himself having given us one Form of set Prayer which he bids When ye pray Say and not at all forbidden the use of set Forms makes it out of question that to pray in a given Form is lawfull so the Form be good And what doubt we but when John Baptist taught his Disciples to pray he did it by giving them some Form which our Saviours Apostles liking desired to have the like from him and our Saviour we see did not so much give them Precepts and Rules instructing them how to make prayers of their own though his Prayer hath that office too but gave them a perfect prayer in an exact conceived Form how much should men fear that their conscience offended at the use of set prayer without the Light of Gods Word declaring it to be unlawfull are consciences blinded with superstition afraid where no fear is and their consciences not onely darkened but their hearts also seduced with self-conceit and singularity unto perverse and affected contention with the Church 5. While they pretend to be free Ministers from a supposed restraint put upon their spirits by the use of set Forms they lay a reall restraint upon the spirits of all Congregations who being always perfect in the Contents and use of their set prayers do with prepared hearts

shewing by asmuch unity of way as might be the unanimity and true communion of the Churches members that thorowout all her severall Congregations at least all of one Nation one Form of Divine Service should universally be observed Hence have the Western Churches where Religion flourished most and longest received much what one Form perhaps not all at once nor alwayes the very same but with some addition or change as use and experience gave occasion untill the Church of Rome corrupting with her greatnesse suffered not the service of God to be exempt from her corruptions and growing at length so licentious in them as even to subvert the Fundamentalls of Religion It pleased God in divers parts so farre to enlighten and strengthen his Church as to examine the Romane alterations by the Test of Gods Word which the Church of England having more happily than others performed reiected what was repugnant to Gods Word and wisely retaining the rest left us that Form of Divine Service that unto this day by the Laws of this Kingdome is advisedly confirmed in the Church In this our restored Liturgie the long practised judgement of the Church regarding one way the property of devotion and another the infirmity of man thought it fitting not to have prayers preaching and thanksgiving alone without the publique reading also of the very Word of God neither thought they it fit that the Confessions of sins Supplications and Thanksgivings that publikely were to be made should all at once in one continued exercise be performed lest happily in many devotion wanting matter of present excitation should wax cold and then the intention of the minde growing remisse and the thoughts wandring men in spight of their hearts should with their lips onely perform an empty mock-God service To the end therefore that the whole service of the Congregation should be truely publikely performed with true communion and likewise with true and lively fervour of spirit they ordained such change and succession of all duties belonging to Gods service as might best make those severall duties most effectuall to the performers First therefore That the Congregation observing one and the same demeanour thorowout all her Members should upon their knees with loud voyces and articular Confessions make an humble and publike and acknowledgement of their sins and vile dition and beseech God for mercy and forgivenesse and the Minister for the comfort of the penitent to pronounce Gods pronesse to forgive and to pray for them and with them That after their humiliation they should with Hymnes of mutuall exhortation taken out of Scripture stirre up one another to proceed to praise to singing and rejoycing before God Then some portions of the Scripture should be read in course of which the Psalms should ever be part which because they contain matter so abundantly usefull for instruction for meditation for comfort prayer praise and thanksgiving they should therefore be read alternally betwixt the Minister and the Congregation to make them in publique more fervent in the prayers and praises wherewith the Psalms abound and to make them also more perfect in the Contents of them for their private use then as Gods works especially of man Redemption are so done as that they ought to be had in remembrance so on Sundayes and other dayes of especiall Commemoration of them such portions of Scripture as tended most to the setting forth of Gods work on that day annually commemorated should be read at the end of which the Congregation as moved by the impressions which these portions ought to make in every one to render God that praise that glory and blessing which the sense of his mercy in his work then declared doth justly procure from the heart and mouth of the thankfull hearer and this they do in Hymnes either taken out of Scripture or composed and allowed by the ancient and generall approbation of the Church After the Lessons of Scripture and Hymnes ended the Congregation to stand up and make a publique confession of their faith and then prostrate on their knees in prayers fitted to the divers necessities and infirmities of humane nature to make supplications for all sorts degrees and conditions of men in which the Minister should not alwayes himself alone utter the words of prayer but for the better entertainment and incitement of devotion every Member of the Congregation with frequent interjecting of their Votes and Invocations should like more active parties in Gods service make a more frequent and effectuall joynt importuning of him Then after an especiall prayer for grace and sanctification the two Tables of Commandments to be read which summarily containing our whole duty both to God and man the Congregation conscious of the breach of every one of them should at the reading of each Commandment cry out for mercy for their breaking of it and implore grace for the betcer observing of it in future And that done some choice portions of Scripture of especiall comfort and instruction and more especially relating to the work of Redemption that day commemorated taken out of the Epistles of the Apostles and the Gospel of the Evangelists to be read with which unlesse the Communion be administred the Word preached or an Homily read the publique service of the Church to be concluded with certain prayers and with the Ministers blessing of the people How well this Ordinance provides for offering unto God the reasonable service of man we must leave unto the consciences of every man As for the exceptions that are made against it they are chiefly these First in generall That it is popish superstitious Antichristian a charge which is very foul if true then in particular That it is in a set Form Now first to be popish is no more than to partake of the Manners Customes or Ordinances of the Popes which when in plain tearms it is not forbidden in the Scripture we must seek how it it comes to passe that to partake of them must be unlawfull The Popes briefly were the Bishops of Rome of which the formost having both for life and doctrine been glorious members of the Church that Church grew so renowned as that for judgement in matters of Religion they had the priority of repute were to the Western Church the authors of many good Ordinances in Religion and the great support thereof till abusing their repute and by little and little degenerating they grew into so unspeakable corruptions as no intelligent man may partake in those things with them without a conscious committing of manifest sin against the Word of God Now though ●heir corruptions are by all means to be rejected yet are they not therefore corrupt or to be rejected because they were the acts of Popes but because they were things which the Popes acted contrary to the Word of God so as repugnancy to Gods Word being the true and onely ground of their unlawfulnesse we can reckon them no further unlawfull than that ground or reason will demonstrate and