Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	offer_v	sacrifice_n	thanksgiving_n	3,189	5	10.9292	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63919	A sermon preached before Sr. Patience Ward, upon the last Sunday of his mayoralty, Anno 1681 with additions / by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1683 (1683)	Wing T3318A; ESTC R23557	54,614	86

Church of Rome and our's is in a great measure taken from thence nay so ancient and in such constant use have they alwaies been in the Christian Church that we have unquestionable Instances of them in the Apostolical times themselves as hath been learnedly observed by a Dr. Lloyd Bishop of St. Asaph Reverend Prelate of our own from Justin Martyr in his second Apology who calls the Prayers of the Christians in his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Prayers and from Pliny in an Epistle to Trajan very often cited by Learned men in defence of the Christians of the primitive times who being examined by him concerning their Manners and Religion affirmabant hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire carménque Christo quast Deo dicere sécum invicem c. The Learned Prelate whom I have newly mentioned understands this place of Verses answering one another by turns as we speak the reading Psalms and I know not saith he how he cou'd better express it And indeed this must be allow'd to be a very proper and a no less acute and ingenious Interpretation for the Psalms themselves were many of them nothing else but Hymns of Praise and Thanksgiving which were composed for the Service of the Temple and this ancient way of worshipping God by Hymns as well in the heathen World as among Jews and Christians is evident from the Hymns of Homer Orpheus Callimachus and others among the Greeks from Hymns of a like nature to be met with in the Interludes of the ancient Dramatick Poesie in the Odes of Horace and in the Writings of Statius Catullus and others And in allusion to this it is that the same Pliny saies in a Complyment to Trajan Animadverto etiam deos ipsos non tam accuratis adorantium precibus quàm innocentiâ sanctitate laetari gratiorémque existimari qui delubris eorum puram castámque mentem quàm qui meditatum carnem intulerit Among the Christians to be sure the singing of Psalms and Hymns in honour of God and Christ and for the mutual benefit and edification of one another was alwaies looked upon as a special Duty and we have several places of Scripture which do not onely vouch and justifie but also enjoyn this Practice If therefore Hymns and Psalms in which many are to bear their parts cannot possibly be sung but by a Form if they must be composed before they can be sung if this be a true and proper exercise of Devotion and Divine Worship if Praise and Thanksgiving be essential parts of Prayer as is manifest from that Petition in our Saviour's own Form Hallowed be thy Name nay if it be the most exalted and sublime exercise of a devout mind and if all this may be done and in many cases must be done by a Set-form then why may not the same be true of all other parts of Prayer and why may we not from hence conclude that a Form of Prayer as it is alwaies lawfull so it is in some cases necessary to be used it is necessary because Psalms and Hymns cannot be sung without it and it is necessary because in some cases we are enjoyned to sing Psalms or Hymns by the express command of Scripture And here before I pass by farther let me ask our dissenting Brethren one Question they in their Congregations are used to sing together the Psalms of David converted into English Rhimes some of them of one man's composing and some of another now though the words of the Psalms themselves especially as they are in the original were divinely inspired and therefore they may pretend though it be a Form yet it is not a Form of humane Institution yet the words of him that puts them into Meeter are not David's words any more than a Paraphrase and the Text are the same the same sense may be expressed in different words and those different words are so many different forms to them that reade them from whence it is manifest that they do not pray by David's Form which was inspired but by the Translator's which is of humane Institution and why then do they declaim so loudly against a Form of Prayer Why they will tell us the Scripture has no where enjoyned it but I have proved the contrary and they themselves confute their own Pretences by their Practice But suppose the Scripture did not enjoyn it what then if we must neither pray with a Form nor without unless the Scripture bid us doe one or the other then we must not pray at all for the Scripture does not any where command either of these unless it be in the use of the Lord's Prayer and yet at the same time enjoyns us to pray without ceasing But these Gentlemen if they were half so good Philosophers as they are bad Divines would have understood before now that all Prayer is a Form and that without a Form it is impossible to pray at all for the sense at the bottom of all Prayer is the same it is either a devout acknowledgment and admiration of the Divine Excellence and Perfection or it is a thanksgiving for his Mercies or an humbling our selves before him for our Sins or entring into new engagements and resolutions of a new Life by offering up the Sacrifice of a broken and a contrite Heart or lastly it is a deprecating those Judgments which hang over our heads for our Sins and an entreating his Goodness for those Blessings which the necessities of our nature or the circumstances of our fortune and condition do require and let these things be expressed with never so much variation of phrase yet it is not that variation in which the true nature of the Prayer consists but it is the sense which is at the bottom which is alwaies the same as a tune is the same though it be pricked down by never such variety of marks and a sentence the same express'd by several cyphers It is not the words that God regards but it is the inward Ardency and Devotion of the mind which may be the same with a Form as without it nay in truth it may be greater with a Form than it can be without it because then he that officiates not being to seek for what he is to say and his fancie and invention not being perpetually upon the rack his mind is the more intent and fixt upon the Object of his Devotion and upon a sober and considerate reflexion upon those things which make up the entire theme and subject of his Prayer he is not apt to dishonour God nor to expose himself and Religion to contempt by rash and inconsiderate expressions uttered in the heat of a distempered and inconsiderate Zeal which we find by experience I speak without reflecting upon any particular person many of our non-conforming Brethren doe as well in their Prayers as Sermons for want of duly considering what they have to say