A69535:266
The grand debate between the most reverend bishops and the Presbyterian divines appointed by…
The grand debate between the most reverend bishops and the Presbyterian divines appointed by His Sacred Majesty as commissioners for the review and alteration of the Book of common prayer, &c. : being an exact account of their whole proceedings : the most perfect copy.
London printed : s.n., 1661
THE PAPERS That passed between the COMMISSIONERS Appointed by His M… › Section
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
[And the best expedients to unite us all to that again, and so to peace, are, besides our prayers to the God of Peace, to make us all of one mind in an house, to labour to get true humility, which would make us think our Guides wiser, and fitter to order us than we our selves, and Christian Charity, which would teach us to think no evil of our Superiors, but to judge them rather careful Guides, and Fathers to us, which being obtained, nothing can be imagined justly to binder us from a ready compliance to this method of Service appointed by them, and so live in unity.
[And the best expedients to unite us all to that again, and so to peace, are, besides our prayers to the God of Peace, to make us all of one mind in an house, to labour to get true humility, which would make us think our Guides wiser, and fitter to order us than we our selves, and Christian Charity, which would teach us to think no evil of our Superiors, but to judge them rather carefull Guides, and Fathers to us, which being obtained, nothing can be imagined justly to binder us from a ready complyance to this method of Service appointed by them, and so live in unity.
Reply. Prayer and Humility are indeed the necessary means of Peace: But if you will let us pray for peace in no words but what are in the Common-Prayer-book, their brevity and unaptness, and the customariness, that will take off the edge of fervour, with humane nature, will not give leave (or help sufficient) to our souls to work towards God, upon this Subject, with that enlargedness, copiousness, and freedom, as is necessary to due fervour. A brief transient touch, and away, is not enough to warm the heart again; and cold Prayers are like to have a cold return, and therefore, even for Peace sake, let us pray more copiously and heartily than the Common-Prayer-book will help us to do. And whether this be that cause, or whether it be that the Common-Prayer-book hath never a Prayer for it self, we find that its Prayers prevail not to reconcile many sober, serious persons to it that live in faithful fervent Prayer. 2. And for Humility, we humbly conceive it would most effectually heal us, and by causing the Pastors of the Church to know that they are not to rule the flocks as Lords, but as ensamples, not by constraint, but willingly,