Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	mind_n	7,027	5	5.7568	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95762	The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. Of Babylon (Rev. 18. 4.) being the present See of Rome. (With a sermon of Bishop Bedels upon the same words.) Of laying on of hands (Heb. 6. 2.) to be an ordained ministery. Of the old form of words in ordination. Of a set form of prayer. / Published and enlarged by Nicholas Bernard D.D. and preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne, London. Unto which is added a character of Bishop Bedel, and an answer to Mr. Pierces fifth letter concerning the late primate.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642.; Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1659 (1659)	Wing U189; Thomason E1783_1; ESTC R209661	108,824	393

men so far above his reach there had been no need of He having in those and divers other aspersions which he hath cast upon him in his late book which may hereafter be fully cleared done himselfe the chiefest wrong I commend the whole to the Readers charitable and impartiall censure that no prejudicate opinion doe obstruct his right apprehension THE CONTENTS Of the Severall TREATISES The First consists of three POSITIONS 1. THat a great City called Babylon shall be a Seducer 2. That by this City is meant ROME 3. Not Heathen Rome but since it was freed from the Government both of Heathen and Christian Emperours and became the possession of the Pope The Second How the Papacy may be said to be the Beast that was and is not and yet is Rev. 17.18 The Third being Bishop Bedels Sermon on Rev. 18.4 Come out of her my people c. The Speaker our Saviour Christ His people those within the Covenant of Grace A paralleling the Speeches here with those of the Prophets Of Litterall Babell who meant by Mysticall Babylon The judgement of Bellarmine Salmeron Viegas to be the City of Rome How the title of Babylon the great and her reigning over the Kings of the earth rather agrees to Rome Papal then Heathen The Cup of inchantment whereby she hath deceived all Nations and one in speciall in imitation of literall Babell Dan. 1. applyed to that See Her Wantonnesse Pride sitting as a Queen glorifying her self the blood of Christians shed by the Papacy to be beyond that of Heathen Romes persecution his conclusion from the Premises That there are some of Gods people in Babylon That they are to goe out not only in affection but the place also Of Baptisme Grounds of the Catechisme Faith taught there of the doctrine of of merits What is to be thought of those that doe yet live there and cannot come out Whether the Church of Rome be a true Church rightly stated p. 83. Of the Ordination had there by the use of these words Whose sins ye remit c. That the Papall Monarchy is Babylon proved by arguments at the barre of Reason and from common principles of Christianity p. 89. Answer to that motive of staying in Babylon because they are told they may be saved in it An exhortation of such as are yet in that captivity to come out and of our selves to come further out Of Impropriations Dispensations c. with a conclusive prayer for the destruction of Babylon The Fourth A Confirmation of the abovesaid judgment From some grounds out of the Ancient Fathers consenting in an expectation that Rome must be the place and the successor of the Emperour there the Person A clear application of it to the See of Rome by the Fathers and Writers in successive ages before and after the tenth Century The Judgment of the eminent Bishops of England since the reformation the book of Homilies especially in 2 places calling the Pope Antichrist and the Babylonical beast of Rome A Synod in France as Ireland How far confessed by the prime writers of the Church of Rome The mistake of such as have diverted the application of it some other way an Answer of a passage of Doctor Heylenes concerning it in relation to the Primate and Articles of Ireland The Fifth Of laying on of Hands Heb. 6.2 Reasons why not confirmation but ordination Paraeus and Mr. Cartwrights concurrence in it with the Primate The necessity of an ordained Ministry The neglect of it as undermining the foundation Objections answered with a seasonable application to the present times The necessity of an external call The Authority not from the People That objection against our ordination being derived from Rome at large answered p. 218. That personal faults in the ordainers doth not null the ordination Some application The 6. Of the old form of words in Ordination Receive the Holy Ghost not meant of the sanctifying grace of the spirit nor extraordinary gifts of it but of ghostly or spirituall Ministeriall authority 1 Cor. 3. verse 3.6 and 1 John 2.20 The anointing teacheth you c. illustrated An objection out of S. Augustine answered Whose sins thou forgivest c. In what sense Ministers are said to forgive sins The Primates judgement in his answer to the Jesuits Challenge defended to be according to the doctrine of the Church of England which Doctor Heylene hath scandalized him in it The 7th Of a Set Form of Prayer The judgment of Calvine Dutch and French divines with their Practice Examples out of the Old Testament and New The pattern of our Saviour giving a form to his disciples taking one to himself and observing the set forms made by others That objection of Stinting the spirit answered An Vniformity in publique prayer a means of reducing unity in Church and State The full concurrence of Mr. Rogers Mr. Egerton Dr. Gouge Mr. Hildersham Dr. Sibbs Dr. Preston c. Of the length and gesture in prayer Mr. Hildersham of an outward reverence in the publick A Character of Bishop Bedell his industry at Venice and at home humility moderation government and sufferings An answer to Mr. Thomas Pierces fifth Letter wherein three Certificates have been published by him for the justification of a change of judgement in the late Primate of Ireland in some points ERRATA SOme omissions of Accents Pointing and number of pages the intelligent Reader may correct himself Page 39. l. 2. r. professed p. 40. l. 8. r. Lo-ammi p. 41. l. 18. r. ir p. 45. l. 9. for there t is related that p. 46. l. 15. d. and p. 48. l. 8. circun p. 49. l. 6. ly p. 63. l. 21. d. p. 59. l. 11. although p. 60. l. 4. her p. 63. l. 1. As gods l. 21. dis p. 64. l. 22. they they p. 70. l. 10. val p. 82. l. 20. d. p. 92. l. 6. may p. 160. l. 23. p. 161. l. 11. Padre p. 162. mar l. 8. justif p. 185. l. 2. baptizing p. 189. l. 2. mining p. 198. l. 6. of the p. 248. l. 22. mediatly p. 250. l. 22. 2. p. 278. l. 12 there p. 317. l. 8. Wethersfield p. 322. l. 18. prayer p. 329 l. 21. and Mr. p. 362. l. 12. d. following p. 378. l. ult d. which The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland what is understood by Babylon in Apoc. 17. 18. Apoc. 18. v. 4. Go out from her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues IN these words we are straightly enjoyned upon our peril to make a separation from Babylon For the understanding of which charge these three Positions following are to be considered The first Position THat it is plainly foretold in the the Word of God that after the planting of the Faith by the Apostles the Kings and Inhabitants of the earth should be seduced and drawn into damnable errours and that the mother of all these Abominations of the Earth should

ever in the Priests Pharises Scribes Sadduces c. yet as he permitted their administring of some rites for himselfe whether of circumcision or the offering made for him in the Temple at the purification after the custome of the Law in his infancy so at his manifestation about 30 yeares after he sends those that were healed by him to the Priests to offer what Moses commanded ye see he did not determine against the office for the personal defilements of their Predecessors or themselves 3. Nay under the Gospel about four hundred years after our Saviour Christ was not the world so over-run with Arrians that it groaned under it as St. Jerom saith when they had the commands of the Pulpits ordaining of Preachers children were baptized by them men put to receive the communion of them as Hilary and Basil say the Orthodox were hatched under the wings of the Arrian Priests yet upon a reformation and the renouncing of that heresie we read not of any rejecting of the succeeding Ministers because they were derived through such hands which I conceive to have been as bad as the Bishop of Rome and his followers The Church then was so wise as to consider a jewel looseth not his vertue by being delivered by a foul hand so neither is this treasure of the Ministry to be despised because it hath passed through some polluluted vessels to us which is appliable for the saving harmlesse our ordination though transmitted through the Popish defilements of some persons so much in vindicating the ordination of the Church of England from the scandall of being Popish Antichristian with which by some ignorant and rash people it is frequently aspersed Let me conclude with this short admonition Be not hereafter so unworthy as to blurre that Ministery with being Antichristian by whom ye have received the knowledge of Christ both by their translating of the Scriptures out of the Originalls into your Mother-tongue for your reading and their labour in the exposition of them for your understanding by whom you and your fathers have been baptized and instructed Be not such ill birds as thus to defile your own nests do not side with the agents of the Bishop of Rome in thus detracting and lessening the reputation and esteem of them Let them not say in their hearts so would we have it nor you with your tongues unlesse in your hearts you are Romish your selves Is it not strange that those who have been so great opposers of the errors of Popery wrot so learnedly and fully against them who have applyed that in the 2 Epist of the Thessalonians concerning the man of sin and that of Babylon in 17. Revel to the Papacy as Bishop Downham Abbot Jewell and the late eminent Primate with divers others that now they should with their very calling and profession be styled Popish can we think otherwise but that the hand of Joab I mean the Jesuit is privily in it Is it not a wonder it should so come about that such as have been the greatest enemies to the See of Rome should be reckoned as members and friends of it and thus perpetually yoked together as twins nay trod under foot as unsavory salt upon that very account as being Episcopall Is this a just reward of their labour in the defence of your profession thus to be aspersed by you as Absolon to Hushay Is this thy kindnesse to thy friend Certainly those of the See of Rome cannot but smile within themselves that they have thus covertly deluded us and so closely taken a revenge of those their adversaries How true is that speech of our Saviour A Prophet is not without honour save in his own country other nations French and German magnifie the Clergy of the Church of England by what is transmitted over Sea in many of their works onely despised at home as the off-scouring of the world what a preparative this is to the expectation of the Papists an able learned ordained Ministery having been hitherto the stop to the introduction of ignorance and superstition which if removed might flow in the more easily which God in his mercy prevent And thus I have endeavoured to confirm the Primates judgement upon this place viz. that by laying on of hands is meant an ordained Ministery The Primates judgement of the Sense and Vse of the Form of words in the former Constitution at the Ordination of Priests or Presbyters defended and enlarged viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven and whose sins thou doest retain they are retained Which as an Appendix to the former subject could not well be omitted THey are the words of our Saviour John 20.22 to the Apostles and why they may not be continued to their Successors who are to succeed in that office of the Ministery to the end of the world doth not yet appear and 't is possible that the late offence taken against them to the disuse of them may arise from a misapprehension of the sense of them The Primates judgement of which I think fit to manifest who in all his Ordinations constantly observed them They consist of two clauses 1. Receive the Holy Ghost 2. Whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained 1. For the first Receive the Holy Ghost We do not here understand the sanctifying graces of the spirit For the Apostles had received them before in that they were bid by our Saviour to rejoyce that their names were written in heaven the evidence of which is heaven wrot in the heart here and had his witnesse that they had believed and had kept his word for whom he had also also prayed in that sense Sanctifie them through thy truth John 17. And if this had been the gift there had been no particular thing given to them for all that will be saved must in some measure partake of it Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his And though it be the testimony of a good Christian yet 't is not a sufficient warrant for him to take upon him the Ministery 2. Again it cannot be meant of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost viz. Gifts of tongues c. For in that sense the Holy Ghost was not yet given till fifty dayes after viz. the Feast of Pentecost but this was given upon the day of his Resurrection So that a third sense must be had which was the Primates as followeth 3. Receive the Holy Ghost i. e. receive Ministeriall power of officiating and dispensing those sacred Ministrations unto which the promise of the holy Spirit is annexed and through which as the Conduit-Pipes this holy water is conveyed not so much meant for their own benefit as the good of others In this he gave them power as the Stewards of God to be dispensers of holy and spiritual things to the benefit of such over whom the Holy Ghost had made them overseers which is

accordingly attributed to the Elders of Ephesus whom S. Paul had ordained Mr. Hookers glosse in his Eccles Polit. is accordingly Receive the Holy Ghost i. e. Accipite potestatem spiritualem receive ghostly or spiritual Authority in order to the soules of men now to be committed to your charge And if you mark the context their Commission is here from the blessed Trinity the Father and Sonne in the verse before As my Father hath sent me so send I you And in this verse a reception of Authority from the third person the Father sends Matth. 9.38 Chap. 10.20 the Sonne Ephes 4. here the Holy Ghost as Acts 20. And so more fully thus Receive the Holy Ghost i. e. receive Authority from the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the efficacious preaching of the Word and Administration of Sacraments by and through which the graces of the holy spirit in repentance faith forgivenesse of sins and the like are ordinarily wrought and confirmed to the hearers and partakers of them yet not excluding it from being a Prayer also viz. that the person thus authorized might receive such a spiritual assistance in it Receive first by way of donation in the name of Christ as to the office and secondly by way of impetration as to the efficacious spiritual assistance of him in it which the accustomed succeeding prayer did confirm which as it was in both senses frequently effectual by the mouth and hands of the Apostles so hath it been accordingly from age to age in and by the Ministery succeeding and therefore why may not the same form of words be used at their Ordination also Can we think this solemn reception of the Holy Ghost in that sense as hath been explained was onely for the benefit of that age and withdrawn totally again in the next That his being with them thus by his spiritual assistance to the end of the world was to determine with the death of the Apostles some of which as Saint James Acts 12. were not long after No surely this oyle poured upon their heads descended further then so even to the skirts of their garments in these dayes The third Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians hath much in confirmation of this In the third verse Saint Paul styles the Minister ordained by Christ his Amanuensis ye are the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God Christ the inditer the Minister is as the hand of a ready writer or the Spirit is as the ink the Minister as the pen through which 't is diffused upon the fleshly Tables of your hearts and by saying us he doth not appropriate it to himselfe but gives the like to Timothy ordained by him which he continues in the sixth verse God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit as he calls the Word the sword of the spirit Ephes 6. committed into the hands of the Ministery so the whole office is called the Ministration of the Spirit v. 8. the Ministration of righteousnesse v. 9. i. e. instrumentally be it that of Justification or Sanctification by which he saith it did exceed in glory that under the law The shining of Moses face the glory of the Temple and vestments of the Priests were glorious but yet had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excelleth for if that which is done away were glorious how much more that which remaineth is glorious Now wherein lieth this glory but in being by this Ministration the Conduits through which the Spirit is conveyed and received or being cap. 6.1 co-workers together with him of it even as the glory of the latter Temple by the presence of Christ himselfe is said to be greater then the former though it had types of him in a more outward glorious lustre 't is therefore called v. 18. the glass of the glory of the Lord by which we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which as it rebukes the Contemners of the office of the Ministery so it answers that frequent objection made against the use of these words at the Ordination to it viz. That the Sanctifying graces of the spirit were sometimes lacking both in the Ordainers transmitting and ordained the recipients It is answered the Transmission or reception of the Holy Ghost here is not meant in that sense as to the resting of it in the persons themselves but as the conveyers of it for the use and benefit of others viz. through these Administrations which they are now by this authorized to performe And that it may be so ye see it in Judas who by our Saviours Commission to him through preaching and baptizing was the instrument accordingly of the transferring of it i. e. remission of sins c. unto others without partaking of it himself our Saviour calls him a Devill and a son of perdition but yet in this Office the Devils were subject to him and he the means of dispossessing of others like Noahs Carpenters who were instruments to save others but were drowned themselves 'T is probable Saint Paul or some of the Apostles ordained Hymenaeus and Phyletus Phygellus Hermogenes and Diotrephas but as in neither of them doth there appear any sanctified grace of the spirit so we do not read it caused any suspension of the vertue of their ministerial acts to the receivers or that the Apostles gave order for any reiteration of them personal faults not voyding Acts of Office and so why should the like be a prejudice to it in these succeeding Ages Receiving supposeth a gift but 't is as the giving of a summe to a Steward by his Lord not to his own private use but for the dispensing of it to the family And to say no more there are some learned Interpreters do apply that passage 1 John Chap. 2.20 to an ordained Ministery yee need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things and is truth (a) Eadem unctio non potuit luculentiore testimonio Pastores doctores ornare à quibus illi instituti fuerant quotidie adhuc instituebantur quam quum ipsos diceret ab ipso Spiritu Sancto doceri jam antea esse doctos Beza's words upon the place are these the same anointing he could not with a more cleare Testimony have adorned the Pastors and Teachers from whom they were instructed and daily as yet are then to say they were taught by the holy Ghost had bin formerly c. (b) Piscator in loc Vnctio docet id est ministerium verbi i. e. Spiritus Sanctus efficax per praedicationem Evangelii quare ministerium verbi in pretio habendum est Piscators words are these The anointing teacheth i. e. the Ministry of the word or the Holy Ghost efficacious by the preaching of the Gospel wherefore the Ministery ought to

be in a great esteem with us Ye see they do not understand by this Vnction or anointing signifying the Holy Ghost an immediate teaching or inspiration as by some Enthusiasme but immediately through the Ministery ordained for that end by a Metonymy as they say of the Adjunct the oyntment for the hand which applyes it or delivers it to you and the teaching you all things is meant of all things necessary to salvation the credenda and agenda which by the Ministery had bin so fully taught them that they needed not to be taught by Saint John again here If any shall object as it hath been unto me that of Saint Augustine lib. 15. de Trinit cap. 27. Quomodo ergo Deus non est qui dat Spiritum Sanctum imò quantus Deus est qui dat Deum neque enim aliquis discipulorum ejus dedit Spiritum Sanctum orabant quippe ut veniret in eos quibus manus imponebant non ipsi eum dabant quem morem in suis praepositis etiam nunc servet Ecclesia c. i. e. How should not he be God who gives the Holy Ghost nay how great a God who gives God for neither any of his disciples gave the holy Ghost they prayed indeed that it might come upon those on whom they imposed hands they did not give it themseles which custom the Church now observes c. Answ 1. In the words before these he speaks of a double giving of the Holy Ghost by our Saviour the one on earth after his resurrection the other from heaven after his Ascension upon the day of Pentecost now in relation to the latter in those extraordinary gifts of the spirit the words objected have their principal application which doth not concern that we have in hand which is only of the former being meant of successive ministerial authority for the ordinarie dispensing of the office Secondly whereas he saith the Church hath observed that custome in imposition of hands to pray for the persons reciving of it hath bin formerly acknowledged to be one sense of that clause viz. by way of impetration Take the gift of the spirit pro dono infuso so we use the words per modum impetrationis take it pro officio so we use it per modum collationis ministerially conferring the power of executing the office of a Minister there is no contradiction but that in the same act there may meet a collation of the office with authority to execute and an impetration for the persons receiving an assistance of the spirit in the executing of it which in the old injunction immediately followed in a prayer for the person ordained accordingly so that the custome and intention of our Church is no other then what was in Saint Augustines time not presuming to give the Holy Ghost in the latter sense only praying it might be given of God to him but only in the former So much for opening of the first clause in ordination Receive the Holy Ghost which rightly understood is not such a rock of offence as some have taken it to be in the disuse of it The second clause is whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven whose sins thou doest retain they are retained At which as much if not more offence hath been taken then at the former as if it savoured of Popery which I shall give you the Primates sense of also That it may be retained in ordination and attributed safely to the office of the Ministery without the least savour that way which no man that knew him and what Popery is but will acquit him of the least grain of it Thus far it will be granted by all sober persons 1. The Ministers may be said to remit sins by way of preparative to it in being the instruments by preaching the word of reconciliation to dispose men towards it in bringing them to repentance whereby they are capable of it 2. By way of Confirmation in exhibiting the seales of remission in the Sacraments according as one well glosseth upon these words 'T is Gods act onely to forgive sins but the Apostles are said to do it (a) Non simplicitèr sed quia adhibent media per quae Deus remittit peccata haec autem media sunt verbum Sacramenta Fer. in loc not simply but because they apply the means appointed of God for that end viz. the word and Sacraments What is there more in forgivenesse of sins then in reconciliation of God and man now ye find this given to the Ministery 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word or ministery of reconciliation Gods act onely authoritate propria by his own supreme authority the Ministers act potestate vicaria as a substitute in Christs stead and the word doth include the Sacraments also as in our usual speech the Letters Pattents doth the Seale affixed to them as the Ministery doth the whole ministerial office 3. Declaratively in testifying this grace of God and declaring Gods good pleasure accordingly upon repentance unto the person like that of Nathan to David or Saint Peter to his Auditory Acts 3. as Ferus saith (b) Non quod homo propriè remittet peccatum sed quod ostendet certificet adeò remissum neque enim alia est absolutio ab homine quam si dicat En tibi certifico te tibi remissa esse peccata Annuncio tibi te habere Deum propitium c. Ferus lib 2. Comment in Matth. cap. 9. edit Mogunt 1559. man doth not properly forgive sin but doth declare and certifie that it is remitted of God so that absolution received from man is as much to say behold my son I certifie thee that thy sins are forgiven thee I declare unto thee that God is at peace with thee which I relate the rather out of him both for his being a writer of the Chutch of Rome and that this passage is purged out of his book by them as erroneous as may be seen by comparing the Edition of Mentz with the Edition at Antwerp 1559 and 1570 Which agrees with that in the Articles of Religion of Ireland num 71. God hath given power to his Ministers not simply to forgive sinnes which prerogative he hath reserved only to himselfe but in his name to declare and pronounce unto such as truly repent and unfeignedly believe his Holy Gospel the absolution and remission of sins But that ye may the more fully understand the Primates Judgement in this point whose authority prevails much with all good men and how remote our Church is from that of the Papists in the use of those words in ordination I shall give you some brief collections out of that Answer of his to the Jesuite Malones challenge concerning this subject and the rather to satisfy the Reader against the injury which among others Doctor Heylene hath done him in this as if

14. why may not the spirit of a private Minister in these ordinary gifts be limited by the vote and consent of the whole Ministery Secondly see the ill consequences of it It must be appliable against singing of Psalmes in the spirit which Saint Paul puts together with prayer I will pray with the spirit and I will sing with the spirit 1 Cor. 14.5 divers of the Psalmes are prayers now if the set form of words in them be not an obstruction to the making a spiritual melody in your hearts to the Lord why shall it be a stop to the overflowings and enlargements of the heart and spirit in prayer Again it must be of the like force against preaching in rhe spirit that if it be premeditated or the Sermon be before composed it cannot be in the demonstration of the spirit and power nor have any efficacious operation in the hearers which is both against our daily experience and Solomons Commendation of the Preacher meaning it may be himself Eccles 12. because he was wise he gave good heed and sought out fit words and set them in order even words of truth If the spirit was not obstructed in the pens of the Evangelists writing their Gospels or with the Apostles in their several Epistles then notwithstanding both were done with labour and studdy why should our labour accordingly in the word and doctrine by the pen or premeditation exclude it now and if a set form doth not stint the spirit either in singing preaching or writing of holy things why must it be so injurious onely to the spirit of prayer 3. But thirdly if a set form be the stinting of the spirit it must be either in the speaker or hearer 1. Not in the speaker for his spirit may be the more at liberty to spirituall fervent enlargements when there is no obstruction or diversion by the work of the Invention in inditing of matter and words the unaptnesse and unreadinesse unto which in many hath so disturbed them and caused them to wander into such immethodicall impertinet wayes that they have been far from the spirit of prayer 2. Not in the hearers for then it must ever be so stinted for whether the speaker useth sudden or premeditated expressions which they cannot judge of the hearers are alike bound to mind what proceeds from his lips so that if the spirit be stinted with them in the latter it is as much in the former For as the judgment is the freer to say Amen by the fore-knowledge and approbation of the prayer so the spirit and affections are at an equall freedom also so that this objection is of no value I shall onely put this to consideration whether that mans heart may be accounted most spiritual which can be daily enlarged and his affections lifted up in the use of the same words or which cannot without the help of a variety like those weak stomacks or distempered in their health that cannot relish one dish twice but must at each meale have the inventions of men imployed to give them various nay in danger of losing their stomack if they hear of them before they come suddenly before them Now in this I would not be understood to discourage any persons in exercising themselves this way and striving to perfection in this gift which I do much commend only as those that learn to swim have help at first of some supporters but afterward come to swim without them Children at first have their Copies their paper ruled their hands held but in time do it of themselves and so there is an expectation that you that are of ability should grow in knowledge and utterance this way but for the weaker sort is it not better they should use a staffe then slip and are not the Major part of this kind like men with weak sights needing the help of Spectacles To whom by denying them a set Form are we not injurious accordingly Though those we call weak may possibly by their fervency and ardency of affection be said of as Saint Paul of himself when I am weak then am I strong and Gods strength perfected in their weaknesse The prevalency of a prayer being not in the elegancy and loftinesse of the stile but in the sighes and groanes and inward workings of the heart like that of Nehemiah and Hanna though their voice were not heard In a word an Vniformity in the publick prayers of the Church to be observed in each congregation would tend much to the unity of hearts and spirits among us which Saint Paul commends as the more excellent way and the end of coveting all gifts whatsoever viz. a Composure of a Form for the publick service of God by the joynt assistance of the most learned and pious from which the most eminent gifted person might not depart more then the inferiour I speak not of prayer before Sermon and after when each may take their liberty though therein the Dutch and French Church are strict also but of some consent in the manner of Administration of Baptisme the communion and other offices in the publick that might be owned by us all in Common as the form of the Church of England which as it hath been a means to continue a unity in other reformed Churches at this day so I believe would be a means for the reducing it with us even a setled peace both in Church and State which ought to be the prayer and principall endeavour of every good Christian So much for the declaring and confirming the Primates Judgment of the use of a set form of prayer in the publick Now unto his for the more easie reception of it I shall here adde the votes of some whom the contrary minded at least the most pious of them will not gainsay I shall not mention the judgement and practice of the worthy Ministers and Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes some of whom were put to death for approving and using the form which was then extant being one of the (a) Ralph Allerton John Rough. Articles put in against them Of these it will be said they walked according to the light then given them I shall therefore trouble the Reader onely with a few testimonies of godly and eminent men who lived within our own memory some of them reckoned among the Non-conformists or old Puritanes yet in this particular fully concurring with the Primate Mr. Richard Rogers Preacher at Walbersfield in Essex whom I well remember and have often seen his constant attendance at the publick prayers of the Church In his pious book entituled the seven Treatises In that Chapt. of publick prayers He thus beginneth If that mind be in us with the which we have been taught to come to all holy exercises and so to be prepared for them who doubteth but that we may receive much help by them yea and the better a man is the more he shall profit by them c. Some have thought all set forms of prayer are to be