Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	charles_n	court_n	king_n	2,872	5	4.0081	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41326	The liturgical considerator considered, or, A brief view of Dr. Gauden's considerations touching the liturgy of the Church of England wherein the reasons by him produced for imposing the said liturgy upon all, are found to be so weak, his defence of things offensive in it so slight, the arguments against the liturgy by himselfe afforded, are so strong, that some, who upon His Majesties declaration did incline to the liturgy, are now further from it, by reading his wordy discourse about it : also some reasons humbly rendered, why many ministers, as yet cannot conform to that liturgy, but not out of disloyalty, pride, ingratitude, peevishness, nor schismatical petulancy, as the sarcastical pen of this uncharitable doctor hath published ... / by G.F.	Firmin, Giles, 1614-1697.	1661 (1661)	Wing F956; ESTC R843	47,787	64

interfer with such an inference That Liturgies are of ancient use in the Church I agree but Liturgy as Episcopacy primitive was in nature clearly different from what they are now pleaded to be Ancient Liturgies were not set and prescribed Forms of publick worship Smectymnus hath asserted Answer to the Remonstrance Vindication of the Answer p. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. and well cleared it against the Remonstrant and that out of Justin Martyr Tertullian Austin the Carthaginian and Milevitan Councils That un ill the time of the Arrian and Pelagian Errors there were no Set Forms of prayer in the Church and then the liberty was only restrained which hath been since destroyed men being only bound to confer the prayers of their own composing cum fratribus instructioribus and Forms digested by the latter of these Councils were imposed no further than by a placuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in concilio ab omnibus celebre●t●r and only enjoyned that the prayers of particular Ministers should be approved by more prudent men the original Liturgies of both Jew and Christian were plain Rubricks English Directories for the method and order of preaching reading prayer administrations of Sacraments and publick worship It is an easie matter to make a bravado and noise of the Liturgies of S. James Basil Cyril Chrysostom whil'st none are produced and proved legitimate if there be any not apparently fictitious bring them forth to a Test or Standard we will joynislue and try the despised Directory and extolled Service-bock and freely consent to retain that which best agreeth and to reject the other until then bears us not down like Children with big words without cause methinks it were hugely worth the enquiry what Liturgy King Lucius received when Faganus and Damianus converted his Subjects the Church by them const tuted had setled publick worship It is apparent that Eleu●herius the then Bishop of Rome referred him to the Canon of Scripture for to frame all his constitutions by it would much fortifie our pretenders to Antiquity to find out the Liturgy used in England before Austin the Monk brought over his Roman Missal Antiquity is a poor whil'st no part of the Service-book as to its frame order doth pretend higher than the time of Pope Damasus 376. after Christ and the whole Fabrick is apparently of a much later date I would desire men may no longer be cheated with words they who talk or write for Episcopacy of Liturgy let them declare the meaning and acceptation of their term themselves have made ambiguous for although I could willingly consent unto a Set-form of publick worship as convenient Crutches for Ministers of weak abilities who need no less Set-forms of Preaching even composed Sermons for whom finding Homilies the constant Concomitant of Liturgies in this sense I am apt to think they were at first prepared yet I conceive this will better advise the Churches care to have more able Ministers who may not need them than warrant the imposing either of them on more able men unto the depriving of the Church of the edifying gift of prayer or preaching nor do all the Arguments yet produced conclude for any such prescription nor can they give the least of satisfaction to a serious spirit owning the antecedent but denying the consequence as unjustly inferred to make a meer clamour in the world against which whether there be not Reason with a full answer to all the supposed advantages of such an imposition suggested by-our Antagonist I refer thee to the consideration of this ensuing Tract Some Cynthius seems here to pluck me by the ear and say Sir you run too fast and tell us nothing that is urged for Set-forms of prayer is sufficient to conclude the imposing of the prefer bed English Service-book whereas you are to consider it is established by Law and calls for your obedience which if you yield not you are bound to produce your Exceptions by way of Apology to anticipate the sufferings which impend over your head To this I briefly answer I know not what to understand by established by Law we have since the Reformation had as many different Service-books as Soveraigns The Book of Queen Elizabeth two of King Edwards one of Queen Elizabeths one of King James and one of King Charls the First though not commanded yet used in England pretended to be onely autherized by Act of Parliament and that this was under colour of Explanation altered by Royal Authority all that call to mind the Conference at hampton-Hampton-Court in 1603. and consider King James his Proclamation for conformity to and practice of his Book as the onely publick form of serving God established and allowed in this Realm and that the Book received among us is greatly different from what it was established is suggested by the late Reasons for Reformation in Worship and cannot be detected for want of a Sta●dard to which it should be compared I would thank that judicious Lawyer who in this case would resolve me these two Queries 1. Ought not a Form Method or Order enjoyned by a Law ●●b poena to be used and that exclusive with a n●ne other to be enrolled as the Standard to which on all suspicion of variation men must have recourse in order to their convictions and for want of such Standard the Law be not voided by an impossibility of conviction 2. In case one Form O der or Method be established by Act of Parliament another by the Kings Commission and Proclamation as the onely Form establish d and ●llowed which of them must be embraced and practiced and in default for which of them must we be convicted and punished if by the last we conceive our selves at present discharged by a power His Majesties De●laration no way short of what is pleaded for its establishment if by the first we conceive our selves discapacitated by that publick charge made by Royal Authority which for want of the Standard we cannot discover Untill these be resolved we can easily see what is offered to us and exercised by others but know not what is es●ablished by Law against which we are not to offend Neverthelesse to stay the censures of peevishnesse and stubbornesse cast on us by passionate men we humbly professe our consciences do interdict our use of the Common-prayer on three as we judge them weighty and important Grounds or Reasons 1. The Common-prayer Book is capable and so qualisied that it ought to be abolished 2. The Form and Order of the Service-book used among us is Superstitious and unsutable to Solemn Publick Worship 3. The Common-prayer Book hath been expelled our Church by a lawful and just Authority and stands excluded by Sacred Oaths and a most publick National Solemn League and Covenant First We cannot return unto and receive again what is capable and so qualified that it ought to be abolished for that we as Ministers of the Gospel charged with the Method and Order of Divine

a fixed possture of body and mind without unnecessary variation of place or gesture from Desk to Table now kneeling anon standing and therefore transient salutations affectionate friendly Christian wishes quickning versicles desultory short options by leaps and starts which may beseem Ejaculatory cannot square with the more serious and composed frame of solemn Prayer 4. These expressions must be openly uttered by the Minister the People attending the same in sil●nce that on due apprehension they may give their assent and enforce it with their Amen for the Minister is their mouth to God and Amen is the part and onely part that good order and Gods word doth appoint the people in their Assembly and then their popular Responds concurrent Acclamations the peoples Rogations supplicative or deprecative Options on the Ministers rehearsal of Mercy Misery or Duties do square better with the confused vulgar clamors condemned in the Heathen than chains solemn publick Prayer 5. These expressions must be uttered at once in a set and continued discourse without interruptions by intermingled duties unnecessary stops abruptions salutations versicles responds abbreviations pauses and postings on again with a Let us pray when nothing but prayer is in hand all which do better sute the sacred phrensie of the fanatick Heathen Priests in their Idol and fantastique service and devotion than that solemn Worship of God which ought to be the result of the spirit of a sound mind On consideration of this unsutableness to solemn publick prayer I should have told the learned Hooker That though God as a great God knoweth our wants and is more gracious than to make His Answer depend on the artificial order and method or frame of our prayers yet when in the sight of men wespeak with God after the manner of men Ecclesiastick polity lib. 5. sect 34. pag. 253. it is our duty to speak in that g●●ve serious and composed order that may bespeak us men of sound minds and so sensible of the nature of the Duty and Majesty of God worshiped in it that our Rudenesse may not engender Irreverence and expose our God and His Service to the scorn of men Nor is it an argument of any force that our first Reformers rejoyced in this Service and the Non-conformists themselves used it For we must not be acted by Example but Rule and conceive our case different from the one and the other To the first the Infancy of Reformation might rejoyce in and grow up under that order of Divine Service which the adult estate thereof must cast off because some of the Martyrs rejoyced in some broken pieces and rude Translations of the Scripture must we therefore be therewith contented and not correct them We our selves at the first comming out of Popery should have thought a Bohemian Cup at Sacrament or a Masse in English to be a very high attainment not knowing things more excellent but when enlightned must not therein acquiesce Calvin wrote to the Church at Franckford that if godly Religion had flourished till that day there ought to have been an order of Service better corrected and many things clean taken away And shall we who have enjoyed true Religion more than 80 years since that time yet continue and contend for that Service-book as if ashamed to give place to better things We must indeed confesse the Non-conformists used some parts of this Service but we humbly conceive our case is different from theirs they had been educated under and insensibly yoaked with it and drawn to subscribe a promise to use it and None other by reason whereof they groaning under it as their burden were to consider how to obtain a Regular Release from the corruptions which by reason of the peace of the Church credit of their Ministry and sidelity as far as might be to their Promise prudence did forbid to cast off with violence wherein yet there wanted not some witnesses against it But our case is to take on us not cast off the Service-book on just grounds and by lawful Authority laid aside to which we generally were not engaged wherein we may well be warned by the burden of our Progenitors and have reason to look before we leap the rather because we are under a sacred Oath which will duly if not directly bind against it And this leads me to our third Reason for not receiving and using the Book of Common-prayer which is this The Common-prayer book hath been expelled by a lawful Authority and stands excluded by a most publick National Third Exception to the Liturgy solemn League and Covenant That the solemn League and Covenant is just and lawful in its Matter and publick and National for its Quality I have demonstrated in my Fastring St. Peters Fetters It s positive exclusion of this Service-book will be evident on these Considerations 1. Every of us stand obliged in Sincerity Reality and Constancy to endeavour Reformation of Religion in England in Worship according to Gods Word and the Example of the best Reformed Churches But the Word of God allows not nay it condemns an order of Service which is symbolical to Idol-worship superstitious and unsutable to solemn publick Worship and no Reformed Church hath received and used our Service-book Not using Corruption is the least act of our Endeavour for Reformation that we can perform 2. We are obliged to endeavor to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Worship And that must be by bringing Scotland to receive our Liturgy which must be done by convincing them of its consonancy to Gods Word and conformity to the best Reformed Churches and that before their forme of worship we have sworn to preserve if in this point any be better than themselves for bellum Episcopale hath already proved too feeble an Argument or by considering their Directory and getting it established in the two Kingdoms unless the Word of God and Reformed Churches can point us to a Medium of some purer way of Worship 3. Preface to 〈◊〉 Directory Though the Directory was not directly and explicitely Covenanted yet the Assembly of Divines advised the Parliament ordained and Ministers of most Counties of England received and attested it in pursuance of their Covenant as most agreeable to the Word of God and example of the best Reformed Churches and the Kings Majesty hath graciously sworn to use it in His Royal Family and ●n the same principle give his Royal assent to the injunctions for it passed or to be passed and endeavour to establish it in all his Dominions Now Lex currit cum praxi and Oaths are well interpreted by concomitant and subsequent actions I think it worth the serious enquiry of such who pretend and pursue a correction of the Service-book whether the Directory be not according to the Word of God and example of the best Reformed Churches and how far the Covenant b nds unto it lest by a correction our King and Kingdom