A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

PRAGMATIC SANCTION, THE. (From πρᾶγμα, business.) A rescript or answer of the sovereign, declared by advice of his council, to some college, order, or body of people, upon their consulting him in some case of their community.—Hutman.

Referring to the expression historically, the earliest Pragmatic Sanction on record is that drawn up by Louis IX., king of France, in 1268, against the encroachments of the Church and Court of Rome. It related chiefly to the rights of the Gallican Church, with reference to the elections of bishops and clergy. It was superseded in 1438 by the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., which was drawn up at Bourges. This having re-asserted the rights and privileges claimed for the Gallican Church under Louis IX., it accorded with the Council of Basle, at that time sitting, in maintaining that a general council is independent of the pope, and in asserting that all papal bulls should be null and void unless they received the consent of the king. It withheld also the payment of annates. (See Annates.) Pope Pius II. succeeded in obtaining the abrogation of this sanction for a time. But the parliament of Paris refused to approve the conduct of Louis XI. in setting it aside, and he was compelled to restore it to its original influential position. It accordingly remained in full force up to the year 1517, when it was supplanted by the concordat, which was agreed upon between Francis I. and Pope Julius II. Although by the concordat privileges were given and received on both sides, yet the real advantages were on the side of Rome; which advantages it has ever since been her constant aim to improve.

PRAISE. A reverent acknowledgment of the perfections of God, and of the blessings flowing from them to mankind, usually expressed in hymns of gratitude and thanksgiving, and especially in the reception of the holy eucharist—that “sacrifice of praise, and sublimest token of our joy.” (See Eucharist.)

PRAXEANISTS. (See Patripassians.)

PRAYER. The offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, by the aid of his Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. The necessity of prayer is so universally acknowledged by all who profess and call themselves Christians, and so clearly enjoined in Scripture, that to insist upon this duty—this sacred and pleasant exercise to the renewed in heart—is unnecessary. Prayer is either private or public, and it implies faith in the particular providence of God. The general providence of God acts through what are called the laws of nature. By his particular providence God interferes with those laws, and he hath promised to interfere in behalf of those who pray in the name of Jesus. As we are to shape our labours by ascertaining, through the circumstances under which we are providentially placed, what is the will of God with reference to ourselves; as, for example, the husbandman, the professional man, the prince, all labour for different things placed within their reach, and do not labour for that which God evidently does not design for them; so we are to regulate our prayers, and we may take it as a general rule, that we may pray for that for which we may lawfully labour, and for that only. And when we pray for what is requisite and necessary for the body or the soul, we are at the same time to exert ourselves. Prayer without exertion is a mockery of God, as exertion without prayer is presumption. The general providence of God requires that we should exert ourselves, the particular providence of God that we should pray.

(For public prayer, see Liturgy and Formulary.)

PRAYER BOOK. (See Liturgy and Formulary.)

PREACHING. Proclaiming or publicly setting forth the truths of religion. Hence the reading of Scripture to the congregation is one branch of preaching, and is so denominated in Acts xv. 21. “Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.” See Archbishop King’s valuable Treatise On the Inventions of Men, in which he demonstrates the extensive sense of preaching, as scripturally used; showing that all public services in the church are, in a certain sense, preaching. The term is, however, generally restricted to the delivering of sermons, lectures, &c.

Article XXIII. “It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord’s vineyard.”

In the same convocation in which subscription in the Thirty-nine Articles was imposed upon the clergy, it was enjoined, with respect to preachers: “In the first place, let preachers take care that they never teach anything in the way of preaching, which they wish to be retained religiously and believed by the people, except what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, and what the catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected from that same doctrine.”—Canon. Eccles. Angl. xix. A. D. 1571.