Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	5,039	5	6.1083	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33981	The vindication of liturgies, lately published by Dr. Falkner, proved no vindication of the lawfulness, usefulness, and antiquity of set-forms of publick ministerial prayer to be generally used by, or imposed on all ministers, and consequently an answer to a book, intituled, A reasonable account why some pious nonconformists judge it sinful, for them to perform their ministerial acts in by the prescribed forms of others : wherein with an answer to what Dr. Falkner hath said in the book aforesaid, the original principles are discovered, from whence the different apprehensions of men in this point arise / by the author of the Reasonable account, and Supplement to it.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1681 (1681)	Wing C5345; ESTC R37651	143,061	307

the Will of God that his Ministers or People should be left at liberty And Christians ought not to yield Principles which are improveable against them to carry them on to further sins 7. But in the next place he comes to consider Whether it be not lawful to forbear Prayers conceived Prayers at least before and after Sermons he thinks it is Well then if it be lawful say our Conformable Divines it may be commanded by Superiors and such commands ought to be obeyed by Inferiors Then it is true which I said That Superiors may wholly in Publick Worship suppress the Gift of Prayer 8. But what shall we say for Families p. 200 he thinks a well composed Form may be used in a Family I think so too if he that Ministreth hath not the Gift of Prayer or if it be a form composed by himself But the Question is VVhether Superiors may command the use of such and no other He seemeth to conclude they may for he determineth them lawful and according to the Principle That Superiors may command even in the Worship of God what is lawful not what is necessary only They may also as to Families suppress the use of our Gift of Prayer or Ability to express our selves to God in Prayer So it is granted that by a Superiors command the Exercise of the Ministerial Gift of Prayer may be shut out of all Churches and all Families and indeed it is so as to a great many 9. Well then may we pray otherwise then by Forms in our Closet admitting Superiors did command us also there to pray only by Forms He tells us p. 203. That Forms of Prayer are of excellent and singular use in Families and Closets But p. 202. he tells us as to Closets That if any Superior should forbid all such Confessions and Petitions in Closets this being against the duty of a Creature and a Christian ought not to be submitted to So then the Superior in this case is no Superior But I pray why Where hath God given the Superior a licence to determine the words of Vocal Prayer in one place more then in another I am sure it is not in Scripture and I cannot conceive how it should be in Nature 10. Our Answerer offers but one thing in reason for it Because there are many things concerning the Persons own particular wants which cannot be comprized in a Form are needful matters of his private and retired Devotions p. 201. Will not the same reason hold for leaving Forms of Prayer at liberty to be used or not used in publick Congregations What State what Church almost is there that every Month hath not some new particular wants I will not say which cannot be comprized in a Form but which cannot be comprized in the same Form and if Forms for the Publick must upon this account be renewed every Moon why may they not or should they not for persons be renewed every night that is only matter of trouble 11. Here 's one great evil of standing Forms they cannot provide for the greatest Emergencies Within these Two years last past we have had as great issues of Providence with reference both to our most Sacred Soveraigns Life our Religion and Civil Government as ever any Nation or Church in the World had as great things to give God special thanks and great praise for as great things to begg of God for our Bodies our Souls our Posterity What hath there been in all our publick Forms for it How many Congregations have there been where God hath not had one Thanksgiving for so great Discovery or one Prayer imploring him either to avert the dangers feared or his assistance to our King and Councels for the fuller discovery of the wickedness and perfecting our deliverence I believe since Christ had a Church upon the Earth and an interest in any Kingdom of the Extent of ours an instance cannot be given where the King and Parliament unanimously and without any persons contradiction of it declared That they were fully satisfied by the proofs they had heard that there then was and for divers years last past ●ad been an Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the Murthering of his Majesties Sacred Person and for subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient and Established Government of the Kingdom Which was done both in October and November 1678 and again March 25. 1679. And God received so few special Praises for our deliverance or heard so few Special Petitions in reference to it from multitudes of the Ministry of the Nation in their Publick Services nor indeed could it be helped considering they were tyed to Publick Forms composed many years before any such thing appeared 12. Another mischief is this That upon publick Emergencies all Ministers are tyed to such Petitions as those who make the Forms will prepare which very little or nothing at all concern the special providence and where they concern it very little or nothing at all How much is God either mocked or deprived of his Glory We have had so late and famous an Instance as no more plain one can be The King and Parliament in Nov. 1678 had declared their full satisfaction as before and the Parliament applyed themselves to his Majesty for a Solemn Publick Fast His Majesty proclaimed it 13. No. 1678. and in order to it gave Order for Forms of Prayer proper for it to be made One Form was made in which was not any thing new of that nature This was complained of in Parliament They Voted another Address complaining of it and desiring some special Forms might be made taking notice of an Horrid Popish Plot c. His Majesty gave present Order accordingly A Second was made which came out but 4 or 5 days before the Fast day but time enough to be sent into the Country But on the Lords day a Member of the House complained to the House of Commons that in that there was not one word of Popish Plots c. upon this the House Voted a third Address to his Majesty about it his Majesty presently Ordered it then the words Popish Plots came in but it was too late to send it in that Form all over England We trust the King and Parliament of England will from hence conclude how unreasonable a thing it is to tye up all Ministers to Publick Forms Since that time how many occasions have been for special Petitions and Thanksgivings but in very many I will not say most Congregations God hath lost that acknowledgment of his influence upon Humane Affairs because the Ministers have been tyed to their Old Forms And from hence I doubt not to say but in a great measure it is That not a few Ministers and multitudes of People have found no difficulty either to deny there was any such Plot or is any or to lessen it and turn it to a ridicule or to insinuate that honest Protestants were

The VINDICATION of Liturgies Lately Published by Dr. FALKNER PROVED NO VINDICATION OF THE Lawfulness Usefulness and Antiquity of SET-FORMS of Publick Ministerial Prayer to be Generally used by or Imposed on all Ministers And consequently 〈◊〉 Answer to a Book Intituled A Reasonable Account why some Pious Nonconformists judge it sinful for them to perform their Ministerial Acts in by the Prescribed Forms of others Wherein with an Answer to what Dr. Falkner hath said in the Book aforesaid the Original Principles are discovered from whence the different apprehensions of men in this Point arise By the Author of the Reasonable Account and Supplement to it Prov. 18.7 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him LONDON Printed for Benjamin Alsop at the Angel and Bible in the Poultrey 1681. To those Honourable Knights Citizens Burgesses Who Are or Shall be Chosen To Represent the Commons of England In the Next Assembly of PARLIAMENT 1. BEfore you most Renowned Patriots we most humbly spread our Cause to whom should the Commons of England make their Applications but to those whom they have chosen to represent them in their Circumstances of Distress and Grief Especially when their most Gracious Soveraign hath so often declared the Benignity of his Royal Nature to them and readiness to joyn in any Act or Acts declarative or confirmative of it and when the most Noble Lords in the years 1672 and 1673 together with the Commons then assembled had gone so far as to our Relief in the Cause as ●●ey did notwithstanding which the mutability of your Honourable House seems to require a new Application to your Honours How far we have applied our selves to the Reverend Bishops will appear to your Honours by the Account of the Proceedings of the Commissioners of both Perswasions appointed by his Sacred Majesty c. Printed 1661 and several other overtures That the case was the same then that is by us now pleaded for will appear to your Honours by that Printed Account p. 5. in their 7 Proposal expressed in these words That the Gift of Prayer being one special Qualification for the work of the Ministry bestowed by Christ in order to the Edification of his Church to be exercised for the profit and and benefit thereof according to its various and Emergent necessities It is desired that there may be no such Imposition of the Liturgy as that the exercise of that Gift be thereby totally excluded in any part of Publick Worship And that the Commissioners on the other side so apprehended appears by their Answer then to this Proposal p. 35. where they replyed This makes the Liturgy void which is very true as to Universal use and Imposition but not otherwise 2. Nor is this Opinion a Novel Opinion or the liberty desired a Novel Request It appears by the Book called The Troubles of Frankford that it is older than our Reformation by Q. Elizabeth and coaevous in England with the first hours of Reformation much older in the Churches of Suitzerland the oldest Reformed Protestant Churches The Opinion and Practice of the Waldenses and Bohemians whose Churches I do not call Reformed but look upon them as continuing in their Integrity and succeeding in the Primitive Doctrine and Practice of the Church in a great measure whilst other parts of the World were in their Apostacy for more than a thousand years together None ever shewed us any Liturgy of Prayers they had nor do they mention any in their accounts which by their Deputies they in gave both of their Faith and Practice to Luther an Oecolampadius which are extant in Sc●lt●tus's Annales Evang. That the practice we desire is the same with that in Scotland New England Holland is not to be denyed 3. The persons most Renowned Patriots on whose behalf we desire it are neither few n●r inconsiderable Two thousand Ministers were turned out 1662. Some are dead but possibly not a much lesser number are sprang up either in the Ministry or Candidates for it Of those let men say what they please there will not be found a tenth part that can think it lawful to perform their Ministerial Acts in Publick Solemn Prayer by the Prescribed Forms of other Men. And Dr. Falkner in his Epistle tells the World That the Genius of that party is much set against them and in their Practice they reject them almost generally with some eagerness which is very true and so appeareth in that the far greater part of them can neither upon eighteen years Trial be perswaded that it is lawful for them to hear them nor yet by any sort of Cudgells be Cudgelled into such a Belief or Practice tho I must profess my self of another mind and in that am my self a Dissenter from I believe 9 parts of ten of our Dissenters whom yet I love and honour I take in both Ministers and People unto my Account Nor are they Inconsiderable considered as to their Intellectuals or Morals or Quality in the World or usefulness to our English world which must be owned and will readily be I am sure by your Honours who are the Eyes of the Nation seeing in every corner of it and ●●●ng able better to judge of Numbers and Qualities of Persons than we that sit in our Studies or any that take an Account from Registers c. 4. Nor are they invaluable or the worst sort of men for Morality and which is much higher True Piety and Godliness Of late years your Honours have had many of them brought before you in your publick Sessions and Assizes Might not you say to those that brought them as the Town Clerk of Ephesus once said Acts 19.37 You have brought hither these men that are no Robbers of Churches nor Blasphemers of God I may add further no Murtherers no Adulterers no Drunkards no Profane or false Swearers no Perjured Persons no Robbers by the High way onely accused of Questions about a Law not profitable to men nor necessary for the glory of God A Law which is but the Will of King and Parliament whose Will hath been since sufficiently declared tho not yet in that formality that it should not be so rigorously pursued nor ever was that it should be exdecuted in that manner and with those circumstances that it hath been For their Religion let it be judged from what your Honours have observed in their behaviour both in Religious Duties and as to t●●●r Civil converse with men For their Religious Conversation let it be observed Whether the generality of them when they are in Gods Publick Worship are they who when they should be joyning with the Minister in putting up Prayers whether he be praying by Forms or no have their Eyes up and down here and there are whispering and talking to those that are next them it may be sleeping or rather be not those who natural infirmities allowing it do stand up or kneel keep their Eyes shut or fixed upon God

not control'd by any Law hath otherwise expounded the Statute I doubt not but in many of their Congregations Prayer and Praise as to these Providences hath not been restrained from the Almighty But your Honours know what is truth in the Affair more than any private Person can and who knows not that the particular Emergencies respecting several Congregations and the Members of them are such as had need of Forms to be made every week to have them comprehensive of all just matter of Prayer and Praise for that Congregation 7. Nor finally are the Sufferings of Multitudes both of Ministers and People things invaluable not to look back further than the manifestation of His Majesties and the Parliaments good will for Dissenters liberty Anno 1672 and 1673. though it was not formally perfected by an Act. It would fill a Volume to tell your Honours how many and how great the Sufferings of good men have been since that time all have been bottomed in this or at least most of them that the most of the Sufferers have not thought it lawful either to perform their Ministerial Acts in Prayer by the prescribed Forms of others or to hear such a Ministration and therefore Ministers who thought themselves obliged to Preach have been constrained to do it in private and People who could not satisfie themselves without hearing somewhere have been inforced to hear in Private Meetings Hence both Ministers and People have been most wofully pursued in Ecclesiastical Courts at Assizes and Sessions some to the loss of two Thirds of their Estates some to Imprisonment for six Years together some one way and to one degree others in another way to another degree Some more legally in Courts where some have been found to defend a righteous Cause Others more illegally they have had doors broken open their Goods taken away to great Values when some Ministers have been 20 Miles off at that time when they were sworn to preach at Meetings Others private Persons at great distances from home or sick in their Beds yet have not been able to remedy themselves But it were infinite to run into Particulars we doubt not but your Honours have seen and heard enough as if some men had designed to leave none to whom the King and Parliament should shew any mercy All this while the Papists scarce one of whose Names we heard of in any Courts were hatching their most Hellish Designs against the Life of the King our Religion and Government since which time their Designs have broken out and been made manifest to our English World and certainly the madness of some Protestants to speak no worse and their apparent inclinations to more charity for Papists than Protestants whose very Name some of these men do not like Catholicks they say pleaseth them better it is easie to be judged they do but keep the Epithet within their teeth for a while layeth an high obligation on all true Englishmen to unite all Protestants that we be not made a common Prey 8. Yet did we ask of your Honours to take away all Liturgies our desire might be more liable to Exception why should we prescribe to others Consciences Nor did they in 1641. it was the Act of a Parliament in which not the Tenth part were either Presbyterians or Independents They only desire the leaving it at liberty as in most if not in all other Reformed Churches Nor are they ambitious of Bishopricks Deanaries Prebendaries they can truly say Nolumus Episcopari let the King give these things to whom he pleaseth Let us but have Bread and a liberty to Preach the Gospel without the wounding of our Consciences 9. Now may the Great God of Peace grant an happy understanding betwixt His most Excellent Majesty and Your Honours May the King live and live for ever and the Parliament be as a sheaf of Arrows in His Hand to strike through the loins of all those who have ill-will to Him to the Reformed Religion or Ancient Government of this Nation And may Your Honours have the glory of causing your Banished to return and being called The Repairers of our Breaches The Restorers of our waste places to be inhabited So shall all Posterity call you blessed And your Petitioners ever humbly pray c. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ENSUING DISCOURSE Offered to every Intelligent and Pious Reader Good Reader I. THou hast found me so unhandsomly Represented in a Book of Dr. Falkners which he calleth A Vindication of Liturgies To which I have here returned an Answer that I cannot but judge it reasonable that I should introduce thee into my following Discourse with a Character of my self I had my time of Childhood and Vanity as well as others and perhaps did my self once think that there was no such Service of God as by Forms of Prayer But since I began to write Man since I understood any thing of Communion with God since I entred into the Ministry which is now Thirty four Years I have seen what I judged reason to be of another mind My whole Ministry hath been ordinarily exercised in one and the same place where my Conversation hath been exposed to a sufficient view As the time of my appearing to the World will clear me from having Concerns in the late Wars from having any thing to do in press●ng the Covenant or the Ejecting Silencing and Imprisoning Men for the refusal of it So it is enough to tell you that I never came near an Army nor ever saw the face of Oliver Lord Protector nor ever had the least Preferment from him or Concernment with him I was always a man of a very open and free Converse and have had the honour of an Acquaintance and Converse with the most Learned men of the Episcopal Presbyterian or Congregational Persuasions in the place where I lived and elsewhere in some degrees Tros Tyriusque mihi c. Where I saw Learning and Sobriety I never made a difference thinking That the Kingdom of God lay not in these things I have had many opportunities as to men of an Episcopal Judgment to do them signal Kindnesses or Injuries of the former I did many of the latter none to any one Learned and Sober Man I always thought England was short enough of them for its Ministerial Uses so as we should not make a particular Persuasion an occasion to render them useless In the late Times I constantly pleaded the cause of any Minister in question if he were question'd only for using the Common-Prayer not for any fundamental Error nor for any Debauchery in his Life I must confess I always thought a Sottish Minister was the vilest of men and never had an heart to plead one of their Causes though I think there is not one of them can say I did them further injury than by leaving them to plead for themselves This freedom of Converse I kept till His Majesties Restauration and several Years after until I saw that some as I judged at least