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
A77773	Short and plain directions for the observation of the Lords day as they were delivered in a sermon in the church of Mallow, in the diocess of Cloyne : suited to the capacity of the common people / by John Bulkelly, M.A. and rector of Cloyne.	Bulkelly, John.	1697 (1697)	Wing B5402; ESTC R42873	10,718	19

quiet heart Thirdly We must join with our Families in private Prayer or if our state and condition be not such yet by our selves to pray servently to God 1st Both for our selves that we may be profitable Hearers for Understanding Memory Grace and a Blessing on the Word 2dly As also for our Teachers and Instructors that God would give them utterance that they may speak boldly as they ought to speak in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power and that God would direct their hearts to meditate upon such Truths as may be wholesom and seasonable for our present condition either for Correction or Comfort as our case most requireth That he would whet the Ministers Tongue to how down all superfluity and naughtiness in us and speak something that may kill our Sin and create the fruit of peace on his Lips to comfort our wounded Consciences When we have thus prepared our hearts to seek and serve the Lord let us get betimes to Church before the beginning of publick Exercises that we may joyn therein with the Congregation of the Faithful We read in Ezekiel 46.10 That the Prince was to make as much haste to the Temple as the meanest in the Congregation He was to go in in the midst of them The people waited for Zacharias Luke 1. The Disciples at Treas came together to hear Paul preach Acts 20.7 At Antioch the whole City almost were come together to hear the word of God Act. 13.44 And Cornelius and his company said unto Peter we are all here present before God to hear all things that are Commanded thee of God Acts 10.33 As we are going to Church let us meditate with our selves that we are going to the Court of the Lord to speak with our great God by Prayer and to hear his Majesty speak unto us by his Word and to receive his blessing on our Souls When we enter into the Church let the Majesty of the place and the presence there affect our hearts with a holy zeal and awful reverence Quis locus est Templis angustior saith the Poet. What place more august and noble more honourable and stately than the Temples dedicated to the worship and service of God Let us consider that this is none other but the House of God the Gate of Heaven where God is in an especial manner present with his holy Angels And therefore let us not omit to worship kneeling down or bowing the head or prostrating the whole body worship the Lord at his footstool O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Whether to the East or to the West is not material the Scripture determines nothing in that particular Every Church in things indifferent may establish such Rites as in wisdom shall be thought most convenient for the preservation of unity and uniformity in God's worship True it is that the antient Fathers in the primitive Church did generally worship towards the East and lay down the grounds or reasons of that custom and the Heathens accused the Christians because they worship'd God towards the East that they did worship the Sun as Tertullian relates in his Apolegiticks as now also some too uncharitably charge those among us that retain the like custom as if they worship the Communion Table This practice of the Ancients serves to wipe off the imputation of Popery from these Yet it is but an indifferent Rite or Ceremony and the disusance thereof not to be condemned in any while the Church hath not established it Christians have no such command from God in Scripture 'T is certain God will hear their prayers that worship him whither they turn their faces towards the Bellfry or towards the Chancell Being thus ready and prepared for the publick solemn service which begins with Prayer by a Minister lawfully call'd and authorized thereunto Gods House is emphatically called the House of Prayer by our Saviour When thy People shall make supplication unto thee in this House saith Solomon Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and when thou hearest forgive St. Paul exhorts that in the Churches first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men 1. Tim. 2.1 The Apostles continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplications Act. 1.14 And the Church assembled at Jerusalem is said to have continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Prayers are every where acknowledged by the Fathers as a necessary part of the publick service requisite to the sanctification of this day Not only Scripture was read Sèd etiám Petitiones erant delegatae saith Tertull. But also Prayers were delegated or sent up to God Ad Deum quasi manufactâ precationibus ambiamus orantes Which Zanchy well explaineth thus Let us go unto God with our joynt prayers as with a spiritual Army or Volly of Shot offering humble violence to the Throne of Grace Now concerning these prayers three things are observable 1st That they were made in a known Tongue 1 Cor. 14.15 16. every nation in their own vulgar Language prayed and God who is Lord of all Tongues hears every one praying in his own Tongue and their several Languages craving the same things just and honest and sutable to his will make a sweet consort a melodious harmony in the Ears of God 2dly These Prayers must be directed to God alone in and thrô Jesus Christ He is the hearer of Prayers The Primitive Christians were sensible that they could not obtain from any other what they prayed for therefore they made their address to God alone in their prayers because he alone was able to perform their request What extream folly and ignorance is it to offer such supplications as are proper only to God unto those who are no Gods 3dly Let us inquire whether these prayers must needs be extempore without premeditation or whether they may not be a set Form or Liturgy composed by the Church and commanded to be used In ancient time the people of God were in special necessity directed to pray in a set form Hos 14.2 Take with you words c. i. e. Take such words as are convenient for the expressing of that which I tell you is necessary for you in this miserable condition that you are in take words that have been seriously weighed and made fit for you take such words as I prescribe unto you as I direct as I dictate take these very words and say c. This was no novelty to the people of Israel they had prescribed unto them a set form of Confession at their offering of the first Fruits and of Prayer for him that offered the third years Tythes Deut. 26. Moses used a set form of words at the raising and setting of the Ark Numb 10.35 Aaron was directed in a set form of words to bless the people Num. 6. And there was a set form of Curses Deut 27. Moses's song was written for

a Hymn for after times And what are David's Psalms but set forms of Prayer Petitions thanksgivings for Benefits and deprecations against Evil. Our Saviour in the New Testament prescribed a Form of Prayer to his Apostles as St. John the Baptist his immediate fore-runner had formerly done to his Disciples St. Paul often used the same set form of Prayer without variation Our Saviour had a better gift in praying than any man in the world and could have varied his words better than any other yet when he had the same suit to make to his Father he used the same words diverse times saying once again and yet a third time Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me In the Primitive times I doubt not but they did pray and preach too as the Spirit gave them utterance but when that immediate assistance of the Spirit ceased they saw the inconvenience of extemporary Prayers and were enforced to compile publick Forms or Liturgies for as St. Aug. speaks Quidam in precibus loquti sunt contrà Regulam Fidei Some in their prayers speak dissonant to the Rule of Faith Some prayed Heresy some Schisme and some Blasphemy In remedy whereof the Council of Laodicaea decreed that it should not be lawful for any to frame set forms of Prayer at their pleasure and recite them in their publick Assemblies But the accustomed prayers which had been approved should be used in every meeting And the Councel of Carthage decreed that what prayers soever a man framed for himself he should first acquaint those that were wise and learned with them before he presumed to use them and also decreed that Nullae aliae preces vel Orationes dicerentur in Ecclesia nisi quae à synodo erant approbatae that no other prayer or supplications be used in the Church but such as are approved by a Synod And the reason is given nè forte aliquid contra fidem vel per Ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit Compositum Least by sudden extemporary effusion of prayer without good advice and meditation some expressions might slip from him either through Ignorance or Carelesness which were not consonant to the Faith of Christ's Church no nor beseeming the awful Majesty of Almighty God And now I appeal to your Consciences whether the same necessity doth not lie on us to preserve the Publick Liturgie or Service Book from contempt and disusance seing so many different Sects and dangerous Heresies are crept in among us as Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists Seekers c. whose prayers if they be true to their own Positions cannot be consonant to the rule of Faith and consequently we cannot with a good Conscience say Amen thereunto I close up this with the speech of Polycarpus O Deus in quae tempora reservasti nos O God for what times hast thou reserved us wherein that service of thine which hath heretofore had the high approbation applause and commendation of many learned Divines and glorious Martyrs is now exposed to the careless neglect to the proud contempt and scorn of new fangled disaffected persons and villifyed as popish and superstitious whose particular exceptions against it or any passage in it have received full particular and abundant satisfaction by the Learned pens of Hooker Fisher Falkner and of Dr. King the now Bishop of Derry But I now come to the peoples Duty at the time of publick service when prayers are beginning lay aside thine own private meditations Let thy heart joyn with the Minister and the whole Church as being one Body of Christ and because God is the God of Order he will have all things to be done in the Church with one heart and one agreement The exercises of the Church are common and publick no body is excluded from it's harmony vis unita fortior It is an ignorant pride for a man to think his own private prayers more effectual than the publick prayers of the whole Church pray therefore when the Church prayeth sing when they sing and let thy heart and affection be intent upon and run along with the publick prayers let not thy heart be roving while thy tongue is at prayer 2dly Let thy behaviour at prayer be such as becometh Saints the ordinary postures at prayer were standing kneeling or lying along upon the ground but the usual posture was kneeling Eusebius witnesseth that the Christian Souldiers kneeled in their prayers Arnobius affirms that Christians when they ador'd God with their joynt prayers did use prostration The Church commandeth prayers to be made with all diligence and genuflection on the set or appointed days True it is that for joy of our Saviours Resurrection the ancient Church would not kneel in her prayers between Easter and Whitsuntide as we read in Tertull and Just Mart. and when that Ceremony was omitted in some places the 20th Can of the first Councel of Nice decreed that it should be observed in every place yet we find in Acts 21.5 that St. Paul prayed with bended knees on the shore of Tyre between the Feast of Pascha and Pentecost After the days of Unleavened Bread he sayled from Philippi and hastned to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost and passing thrô Tyre in this his journy towards Jerusalem he kneeled down on the shore and prayed Acts 20.6.16 Kneeling then is the most seemly gesture in prayer but if thou canst not thrô some bodily infirmity or for want of room why then stand But sitting is a most irreverent and unseemly gesture at prayer time When thou prayest thou askest a Blessing and dost it upon thy knees if to thy earthly Father how much more to thy heavenly But men have inverted the course now they drink their health upon their knees and pray for their health upon their tayles God shall answer such men according to their manners Lastly at the close of every prayer say Amen Neh. 8.6 1. Cor. 14.16 So did the primitive Christians ad similitudinem caelestis tonitru Amen reboabat saith St. Hierom. The whole Congregation resoundeth Amen like a crack of Thunder till the Church did ring again After prayer succeedeth the publick reading of the Word Deut. 4.10 where it appears that the end of our gathering is to hear the word that is sanctified for sanctification Moses was read among the Jews in their Synagogue upon that Sabbath day Acts 15.21 Among Christians also Moses and the Prophets were read at first Acts 13.15 Then the Gospels 2. Cor. 8.18 We have sent with Titus the Brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches whence we may not improbably gather that the Gospel of St. Luke was read in all the Churches in Sr. Paul's time St. Paul chargeth the Thessalonians that the Epistle sent unto them be read unto all the holy Brethren and he desires of the Collossians that they would read the Epistle written from Laodicaea and cause that which was sent unto them to be read to the Laodiceans After