Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	lord_n	pray_v	prayer_n	4,629	5	6.6633	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70471	A treatise of the episcopacy, liturgies, and ecclesiastical ceremonies of the primitive times and of the mutations which happened to them in the succeeding ages gathered out of the works of the ancient fathers and doctors of the church / by John Lloyd, B.D., presbyter of the church of North-Mimmes in Hertfordshire.	Lloyd, John, Presbyter of the Church of North-Mimmes.	1660 (1660)	Wing L2655A; ESTC R21763	79,334	101

be made to thrust another out of the Church but reading and prayers and preaching c. ought to be so proportioned to the time appointed for them and the strength of them that officiate that no necessity that may be prevented may compel to the omission of any divine ordinance that ought to be performed In the sixt Council of Constantinople at which time much corruption was crept into the Churches the Fathers present in it commanded that the Bishops and Presbyters should dayly preach Gan. 19. especially on the Lords day It is commanded by another Council that if a Presbyter cannot preach by reason of sickness Conc. Vasens Can. 4. sub Leone 1. that a homily or sermon of one of the ancient Fathers be read by the Deacon In another Council it s thus decreed that if the Bishop be not at home or is infirm or is not able for some other cause yet never let on the Lords days or Festivals any want to be of one which may preach the Word of God so as the vulgar people may understand Concil Maguntiac c. 25. circa an 813. The Primitive Bishops were preaching Bishops and usually preached every Lords day as we see in Justine Martyr and in Festival days in the principal fasting days in Lent as we find in Ambrose Chrysost Augustine and others But I must return to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church The Ceremony of standing and not kneeling in prayer on the Lords days and the days between Easter and Whitsontide was in use in the Apostles days and instituted by them Apud anthorem Christian resp resp 115. as Irenaeus the hearer of Polycarpus Auditor of the Apostle John doth testifie In the time of Tertullian about the year 200 many other Ceremonies are mentioned by him which we find not in any approved Author before him spoken of and are affirmed by him to descend from the Apostles as the signing of the forehead of the baptized with the sign of the Cross besides Tertull. de corona militis c. 3. the usual signing with the same sign upon sundry occasions the tasting after Baptism of milk and honey the use of having Suerties for Infants to be baptized De Bapt. c. 7. 18. the annointing of the baptised with oyl Offering for the faithful deceased which was thus the friends of the deceased offered bread and wine in their behalf for the use of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the Priest by faith in prayer in the celebration of the Eucharist presented to God the Father the sacrifice of Christ once offered by him and which was in some manner present in the Sacrament beseeching him for that most holy and perfect sacrifice sake to take away the remainder of sin from the soul departed which was not taken away in this life both as to the guilt and inhaerency of it and to grant to the soul the promised present blessed rest and in the day of judgment to make the person partaker of the publick justification and possession of full faelicity Before the receiving of the Lords Supper they kissed one another with the holy kiss the sign of true love and peace which we are sure was used in the Apostles dayes and seems to argue strongly for the use of significant Ceremonies The Easter and Pentecost were the set and solemn times of the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism de bapt c. 18. I need not speak of Confirmation of the observation of the Feasts of Easter and Pentecost of the fast in the days of our Saviour's death and burial of the less perfect and voluntary fasts of Friday and Wednesday Tert. de jejun c. 2. which be in part before touched for my purpose is not to make an exact collection of the ancient rites but of such as may give some light to see whence those Ecclesiastical Ceremonies which have been and partly are used in our Church took their beginnings As concerning the gesture of the body used in the prayers of the Church de Orat. c. 12. it was kneeling or standing this last on the Lords dayes Tertul. l. 2. ad uxor c. 9. de Monogam 6.10 and in all the Pentecost For as Tertullian saith it is a most irreligious fact to pray to God sitting before him unless we upbraid Him that prayer hath wearied us Concerning Matrimony De Veland Virg. c. 11. de pudicitia c. 9. Ambros Ep. 70. Nazianz. Epist 57. in Tertullian's time they defired of the Bishops presbyters Deacons and Widows leave to marry they were married by a Bishop or presbyter the woman used a Vaile they joyned their right hands kissed and Tertullian doth also seem to intimate the use of a ring it is certain it was in use in Isidors time and before Isidor de Eccl. offic l. 2. c. 19. the Bridegroom saith he gave a Ring to the Bride which was put upon her fourth Finger We may gather from Tertullian De bapt c. 9. Apolog. contagent c. 30. that the Lords prayer was commonly used in the publick prayers of the Church for he calls it the legitime and ordinary prayer which saith he being laid as a foundation we may build upon it the petitions which our particular cases require He shews that our private prayers wherein we express to God our particular wants and desires must not be loud not altogether set formes but prompted to us without such monitor by our own hearts which alone can tell us our particular necessities When we pray saith Cyprian let the Father acknowledge the words of his Son Cypr. de orat Dom. And we do saith he the more effectually obtain what we ask in Christs name if we ask using his own prayer Hom. 42. ex 50. The Lords prayer saith Augustine is dayly said at the Altar of God in his Church The fourth Council of Tolet. Can. 9. called it a Quotidian a dayly prayer and commanded it to be said by the Clergy not onely on the Lords days but every day both in the publick and private duty Concerning prayer de orat dom Cyprian hath these remarkable words when we stand to prayer saith he our mind must be onely upon that it prayeth and therefore the Priest premising a preface before the prayer prepares the minds of the Brethren saying Lift up your hearts that the people answering We have unto the Lord may be admonished they ought to think on no●hing but the Lord By which words we learn two things First that in Cyprian's time which was 250 years after our Saviour's birth set forms of publick prayers were used in the Churches Secondly that the people had other answers besides Amen to make to the minister in the solemn prayers of the Church De bono perseverantiae c. 13. de Spir. lit c. 11. Augustine discovereth what followeth those words of the publick prayers mentioned by Cyprian the Priest said saith St. Augustine let us give thanks to

translation it is not lawful say the Fathers of that Synod for the Choropiscopi Countrey or Village Bishops not for the Presbyters of the City to ordain Presbyters or Deacons unless that be committed to them by the Bishop being absent in another Diocess by his letters And therefore the Churches decree constituting Episcopacy abridged the Presbyters whether dividedly or conjunctly considered but onely in the exercise of their power Surely it must be beleeved that no ordination would be made by the Apostles excelling the ordination which our Saviour celebrated breathing upon his Apostles c. and giving them a comission to teach c. with promise to be with them unto the worlds end whereby the Presbyters were virtually ordained and comissionated astruly as the Bishops and therefore received thereby as much power as they in respect of the kind and nature which hinders not but that the exercise of some part of it might be taken from many of the persons ordained But some perhaps may say that Christ in that ordination ordained in the Apostles some as elder Brethren and others as the younger yet hence it will follow that the kind and nature of the ordination is the same in all as the nature of the Father is in all his Sons and that onely a principallity in the having and exercise of it belongs to the Bishops which is granted Others may say farther that Christ in ordaining the Apostles did virtually ordain some as the Sons of the Sons of the Apostles and others as their grand-children if this can be well proved it will indeed evince that the power of ordination as well as the exercise of it is proper to the Bishops but until it be made clear that this was the primary meaning and intention of Christ in that Act of ordination and not an effect onely of a consequent occasional providence of the Apostles and Churches it is probable that the power of ordination remaineth still in the presbyters restrained in the use by the canon of the Churches and Apostles The members of the Church which made the decree of Episcopacy and limited the use of the Eclesiastical power in the presbyters were the greater number of the presbyters themselves which remained in the unity of the mystical body with the greater part of the people and the Authors of it by way of approbation and confirmation were the holy Apostles The Apostles and Presbyters in the effecting of it exercised the ordinary Vicary Authority Basil constit mona c. 22. which they had as being by their ordination made the Vicegerents of the blessed Mediator Christ Jesus considered only as Mediator according to his own saying he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me the saying of the Apostle we are Emb●ssadors for Christ and we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5.20 That authority when it is duely exercised ought to be obeyed And because presbyters may erre in the using of it a spirit of discerning noxious doctrines and constitutions is given to Christians to examine and trie Bas l. reg 72. c. 1. with command to reject the evil and receive the good which good if the major part refuse being by their Pastors propounded to them Aug. de temp serm 143. they may do it upon their peril as they will answer it to God unity and peace interceding and forbidding that no Ecclesiastical constraint or censure proceed against the civil higher power or the major part of the people It is therefore requisite that constitutions to be made laws in the Church be by the leave of the supreme magistrate if he be a Christian propounded to the people that their consent being given the ministerial authority may make them laws Ecclesiastically obliging if no higher authority hinder Before these Law-makers constituted Episcopacy every singular Presbyter was to act according to the directions and rules of the Presbyterian Colledge which was the Church Law-giver and superintendent of the execution having the supreme dignity under the Mediator and preheminence in all things properly Ecclesiastical What is spoken concerning the Colledge of Presbyters must be applied proportionably to the several bodies of them in the Diocesan provincial imperial or universal Church The decree constituting Episcopacy took from the Colledge its high dignity and preheminence and conferred it upon one and so divided the exercise of the Legislative power among the Bishop and the Colledge that the one might not duely use it without the other For although the dignity and precedency of the Bishop may give more weight to his vote yet is the Vicary authority which cannot be separated from Presbyters as long as they be Presbyters as truly exercised in their votes whether in deciding controversies of faith or making of Canons c. as it is in the Bishops vote Which is manifest as by many testimonies of antiquity so by the practise of our English Synods which are conformable in the substance to the best and most ancient constitution of Councils The superintendency which the Colledge had over the execution of all Ecclesiastical duties and ordinances was chiefly in the Bishop yet so as without his Presbyters he could not regularly hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes as before was shewed out of the fourth Council of Carthage and might be further demonstrated out of St. Cyprian and other ancient writers Every suprem civil power on earth as Gods Vicegerent Sect. 10. is bound to advance and preserve the true Religion so far as the light of nature can manifest it or divine revelation doth make it known unto him so that a King which hath embraced Christian Religion which alone is the true Religion is obliged to maintain it and to cause that the Christian duties be by all in their several stations and charges duely performed and therefore a Christian King is a law-giver above the Ecclesiastical Law-makers but so that he ought not to hinder the due exercise of their legislative power and make laws purely or properly Ecclesiastical without their concurrence in Counsel and consent but by his Laws and power partly to cause them to meet for the due exercise of their duty partly to maintain and strengthen their right proceedings in performance of their office and lastly if their Edicts be cosistant with the peace of the common-wealth and meet for the edification of the Church to perfect and make them full and complete laws by putting the hand and seal of his highest Vicary authority as Gods Vicegerent to the resolves of the subordinate Vicary authority of the Vicegerents of our blessed Mediator as Mediator God and man the Lord Jesus Christ God is a God of order and hath ordained that this unity and harmony between these two authorities should be firmly kept otherwise by a supine neglect of duty or by an exorbitant usurpation on either side the unity and peace both of Kingdome and Church are equally in danger of being broken The

between the one adoration and the other and the beholding the same acts of worship to be done to God and a sacred thing doth puzzle the ignorant and unwary that either his zeal is as much to the creatures adoration as to the Creators or mingles in his mind both the adorations whereby the best is debased and corrupted Some may say may we not bow to God and kneel to him at the altar without danger It is soon answered That without doubt we may and must do so and in so doing our mind doth not intend the altar as the object of our bowing The danger is in bowing to the altar for then we make it the object to which we bow It may be demanded if the Magistrate make the naming of the name Jesus the name of the Saviour of the world to be a sign when in the divine service we must bow to the person of the Lord Jesus God and man and not to the name Jesus may we not without danger so do I answer first That it is our duty to bow our hearts and also in convenient time and place to bow our bodies to the man Jesus Christ in the unity of the divine person And this is intended in Philip. 2. Secondly to bow our bodies at the naming of the name of Jesus is no duty that we are bound unto It is indifferent then to bow or not to bow as it is at the naming of the name of Christ Thirdly if the magistrate command us either at the naming of the name Jesus or at the naming of the name Christ in the divine service to worship Christ God and man by bowing unto him and not intending the name Jesus or Christ as an object of our bowing it is our duty to obey our Superiours command Fourthly from the bowing at the name the vulgar easily fall to the bowing to the name These adorations of the Cross c. inward and outward may not be counted divine or properly and of their own nature religious because no rule of true religion doth require them but they are properly Ecclesiastical because the Churches did sometime create them and as things Ecclesiastical and things any way made pertinent to religion are counted religious things so may these adorations be accidentally called religious There is not that kind and degree of excellency in the Cross Communion-Table or name Jesus or in any such sacred thing which may in proper sense merit and require that mental regard from us which should of right be testified by those acts of worship Neither do we find that the Churches acknowledged any obligation upon them to make any Canon requiring those adorations but onely as circumstances then were a congruity to command their use under which command and judgement of the Church individual persons were to acknowledge those sacred things worthy those honours Wherefore if it please our Superiors to continue the use of these Ceremonies which are so easily abused it will be very necessary to state and determine the right use of them and to point at the dangers to be avoided and to command that the cautions be at set times read in the Churches that none may erre for want of knowledge or by forgetfulness The discreet followers of the holy ancient Fathers of the Church are worthy commendation but their apes are ridiculous To sow the foul raggs of some late slovenly School-men to the comely garment of our Church as the misinterpreters of the text in Philip. 2. have attempted is an act disgraceful to the authors derogating from the honour and dignity of our dear Mother and introductory of unwarrantable adorations being pretended to be commanded by Almighty God For if it be once obtained that the adoration used to the name Jesus is of divine institution it will by the necessity of like reason follow that the bowing to the cross and the Communion-Table and especially to the holy bread and wine is a duty which of divine right doth belong unto them But it is time to proceed to speak of some other Ecclesiasticall Customes of the fourth Century Sect. 17. whereof one was derived from former times Chrysost in 2 Cor. hom 2. that in the Churches no Our Father was said in the prayers so long as the Catechumen and Penicents for whom special prayers were made were permitted to stay in the Church Concil Leodicen can 19. Et Chrysost in Eph. hom 3. Aug. de temp ser 38. Amalar. de Offic missae c. 19. Vide concil Valentin c. 1. After their departure out of the Church began the second divine Service and prayers proper to the faithful among which was the Lords Prayer most of the rest were subservient to the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper When that Sacrament was to be administred which was then usually every Lords day they offered bread and wine for the use of the Sacrament instead of which we have offerings for the poor and the Bishop or Presbyter went from the Pulpit or place where he prayed for the penitents or his seat to the Communion-Table where it is to be noted that he had not so long and difficult a journey to go as in most parochial Churches the minister hath to pass from his reading Pew or Pulpit through a throng of people to the holy Table and therefore there is good reason to spare him that labour in the days wherein is no Communion Persons excommunicated were nor received into Communion of any Prayers in the Church Conc. Ancyram can 6. 25. Conc. Nicen. 6.11 no not with the Catechumens until they had humbled themselves before the Bishop and earnestly besought that they might be made partakers of his councel concerning what was needful to be done by them to the perfecting of meet repentance in them and whereby they might give sufficient proof thereof for the satisfaction of the Church offended by their transgressions promising to follow his counsel and to perform the enjoyned pennance Upon this serious petition and promise the Bishops and Presbyters enjoyned such works of unfained humiliation to be done by them as they thought most agreeable for their case and condition and praying for them admitted them to the number and order of the Penitents When these had fulfilled the enjoyned works of humiliation to be performed by them in that order then they were admitted to the Communion of the prayers proper to the faithful and after the works of repentance which were commanded to be done by them in that rank they were admitted to the Lords Supper wherein was the perfection of Communion Conc. Nicen. c. 12. If any Penitent in the course of humiliation was in an eminent and iminent danger of death it was alway provided by the Fathers of the Church that perfect Communion with the Church of God without which Church is no salvation should be granted him in the participation of the body and blood of our blessed Saviour except the governours of the Church had observed in