may be and are very well provided for by well-compos'd Forms for Solomon tells us There is nothing new under the Sun But if any such new and unheard of Occurrence should happen that Authority neither hath nor can well make provision for there is none will blame you if you either compose a Form or use your free Prayer upon such an occasion Provided it be done with modesty and due respect to the Authority of your Superiours So that these things well considered neither is the Case of Publick Forms weakened nor the necessity of Free Prayer confirm'd by your frequent Talk of Providential Events and Occurrences Your other Objection shall be answered in my next in the mean time I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. April 9. 1697. LETTER IX To J. M. SIR I Come now according to Promise to consider the second Objection against Forms which you likewise make use of as an Argument for free Prayer And that is taken from the tendency of Forms to cloy and dull your Devotion and the aptness of free Prayer to quicken and enliven the same A great Fault indeed in the One and a great Convenience in the Other if both be true but I think we shall find upon examination that neither is First then you say Publick Forms are apt to deaden and dull your Devotion But why so Why for two Reasons viz. 1. Because they are constantly the same old Words and likewise 2ly Because they are red out of a Book too Now if these be good Reasons you must be as dull as a Beetle in reading the Holy Scriptures and stark dead at the Lord's Prayer for these are always the same Words and read out of a Book too And he that can find no Life or Spirit in reading of these cannot be edifyed by any Prayer Our Saviour exhorted to the frequent reading of the Scriptures 1 Tim. 4.13 and the Apostle to give attendance to reading Which was done by the Primitive Christians with that Intention and Fervency that as Origen tells us The devout Reader seem'd to be in a manner inspir'd But you are dull'd it seems with reading old things and nothing can please you but what is new and speaking without Book Might not this Sir be the occasion of setting up new Lights above the Scriptures to please such new-fangled Humours and enlighten such dull Understandings Yea hath not this occasion'd the laying aside the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed because they are still the same old Words and read out of a Book too But tell me Sir did Christ prescribe a Form of Prayer to deaden or help the Devotion of his Followers Or did the Holy Ghost destroy all the Life and Vigour of it by putting it into Writing that it might be read and used by Christians in all Ages If this were true Oral Tradition would be a greater help to Devotion than the Oracles of God for these are old written Truths and the other the various and changeable Inventions of Men. Does not the Apostle bid us To hold fast the Form of sound words which we can neither hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 nor keep sound long if it be subject to daily Variations Must we be always Children to be pleas'd only with New Things Ephes 4.14 1 Cor. 14.20 and like them to be carried about with every wind of Doctrin Or must we not in Vnderstanding be Men by standing firm to the Ancient Faith and keeping close to the receiv'd and well-order'd Models of Devotion But why Sir should grave and well-order'd Words in Prayer put such a Damp upon your Spirits and dull your Devotion One would think that few and well-weigh'd Expressions should better tend to make Men soberly and religiously Devout than pouring out many new raw and indigested ones and that the Heart should be more at leisure to attend the great business of Prayer when Matter and Words are well prepared for it than when 't is called off and hindred by the Study and Invention of both A Wise Man would think it a great quickening of Devotion to consider that he is joyning with the whole Church at the same time and in the same Prayers and would thereby be encourag'd with greater hopes of success from the harmony and agreement of our Petitions which our Saviour hath made necessary and effectual to that end Mat. 18. But I fear Sir the dulness you speak of will be found more the Fault of the Persons than the Prayers For 't is not possible that the well-order'd Matter and Words of a pious Form should so disorder the Spirits and dull your Affections if there were not something else in the matter Have you not Sir some other Game to play upon the People which is better carried on by new Words than old Then 't is no wonder that that is accounted dull which does not move forward and advance the Design Have you not entertain'd some Prejudices your self or infus'd Prejudices into others against Forms As That they cannot provide for all Emergencies and that the constant Use and Repetition of them is apt to cloy and surfeit and so have put People out of Love with plain wholsome Food by treating them with Kickshaws and Varieties 'T is ten to one but there is something of this in the matter Your unjust Censures Outcries and Declamations against pious and publick Forms hath caused many to neglect the publick Worship and made others careless and irreverent in it And if so you must answer for your own and others dulness which you have unhappily occasioned Secondly You say That old and frequently repeated Forms are not more apt to dull than new and varied Prayers are to quicken and enliven you for you find a different Heat and Flame in such Prayers But pray Sir what kind of Heat is that you feel in such Prayers Is it not rather the Warmth and Heat of Fancy than any real Fervency of Spirit This is a frequent and dangerous Mistake and hath impos'd upon many who have taken some false Heats for true Zeal and the delusions of the Imagination for the true Devotion of the Heart But because this is not easily discern'd or understood by vulgar Minds I will endeavour as clearly as I can to discover the Delusion To this end we may observe That as in the Body there is a Natural Heat residing in the Heart which conveys warm Blood and Spirits to all the Members and in this the Health and sound Constitution of the Body mainly consists so there are sometimes the preternatural Heats of Fevers and other Distempers which too much inflame the Blood and put the Spirits into a violent and disorderly motion and this is an evil habit and indisposition of the Body Just so likewise it is with the Soul there is a pious fervency of Spirit which resides in the Heart and fills it with strong desires after God and an inward delight in him and in this consists sound and
Ecclesiis The Apostles did set in order in the Church such things as had relation unto Order as Forms of Prayer and the like Dyonysius the Areopagite Eccl Hier. p. 77 who was Cotemporary with the Apostles testifies that there were then Forms of Prayer to which all the People said Amen And tho' some doubt hath been made whether the Book in which this is recorded be his yet 't is by all granted to be exceeding Ancient In the next Age to the Apostles Epist ad Trajan Pliny in his Letter to Trajan makes mention of set Forms of Hymns and Praises us'd by Christians at that time Soliti sunt saith he Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem And both Ignatius and Justin Martyr speak of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Common Prayer that was used among them In the second and third Centuries we find Origen in his Book against Celsus Origen contra cels lib. 1.8 speaking of Christians using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Appointed Prayers And in one of his Homilies citing a piece of Liturgy then in use Homil 11. Frequenter in Oratione dicimus Da Omnipotens da nobis partem cum Prophetis i.e. We often say in our Prayers give Almighty God O give us a Part with the Prophets St. Cyprian makes frequent mention of a Liturgy in the Church of Carthage telling us of the Ministers saying in the beginning of it Sursum Corda Lift up your Hearts and the People answering Habemus ad Dominum We lift them up unto the Lord. And the same is derived down and used in our Liturgy to this Day And Tertullian mentions the same Form of Abrenunciation that is still used in our Office of Baptism and withal adds That they had set Hymns for particular Times and Occasions Eusebius in the life of Constantine tells us that besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the established Prayers he ordered Forms of Prayer to be composed for the use of the Soldiers Euseb in Vit. Constant lib. 9. 〈◊〉 9 c. Which plainly shews his Approbation and Use of them If we go forward to the fourth and following Centuries we shall find our selves compass'd about with a whole Cloud of Witnesses St. Crysostome St. Ambrose St. Basil St. Austine with many others some whereof were Framers of Liturgies Besides many Counsils that decreed and established the use of them As Consil Laod. Can. 18. Carthag Can. 23. Milev Can. 12. If we come down to the Times of the Reformation we shall find all the Lutheran and Foreign Churches using Forms of Prayer for Publick Worship Yea if we come to Geneva and consult your beloved John Calvin the Father of Presbytery we shall find him using a constant Form of Prayer in his Publick Ministration And likewise composing Forms of Prayer for the use of Geneva which were approved of and established by the Authority of that City And for his Judgment of the use of Forms you may take it from himself who in his Letter to the Lord Protector thus declares himself Calv. Epist 87. For so much as concerns Forms of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rites Valde probo c. I much approve that they be determined so that it may not be lawful for Ministers in their Administrations to vary from them By which you may see how far you do degenerate from the Principles and are gone off from the Practices of the first Founder of your Sect. Yea 't is well known that those who were styled Puritans or Presbyterians before the great Rebellion Conscientiously used and frequented the Publick Liturgy and inveigh'd bitterly against all separation from it Thus you see the Christian Church ever since the days of Inspiration hath every where Celebrated Publick Worship by Liturgies or Composed Forms of Prayer So that Extempore or Free Prayer was a thing unknown to the primitive and purer Ages of the Church and plainly appears to be a late Invention By whom it was brought in and for what End I shall accquaint you very shortly In the mean time what can it be ascribed to but to your Ignorance or Pride thus to set up your Self against the Judgment and Practice of the whole Christian Church in all Ages 2. But you ask Secondly Who are those Uninspired Persons that have a Commission to compose these Prayers and likewise who are they that have Authority from God to impose them For the composing these Publick Prayers that undoubtedly lies in the Power of the Church which from the beginning of Christianity hath ever exercised it For Christ sent forth his Apostles not only to teach but to Rule and Govern his Church That all things in it may be done Decently and in Order and to the use of Edifying And Beza as was before observed tells us that Forms of Prayer were one of those things that related to Order and were settled by them 1 Tim. 3. ◠2. St. Paul directs Timothy to take care that Publick Prayers be made or composed for the use of the Church of Ephesus of which he was made an Over-seeer Now this being a matter of standing use and benefit to the Church is derived down to their Successours with whom Christ promised to be to the end of the World And therefore we find that the Rulers and Pastors of the Church meeting in Synods and Convocations have upon Mature Advice and Deliberation framed these Publick Liturgies ever since Mile Concil Can. 12.23 The Milevitan Council forbids the admitting any other Prayers in the Church for the Publick Worship of God than those that are so made and so approved lest thro' Ignorance or want of Care something might slip in that was contrary to the Faith But who are they say you that have Authority to impose them upon all Ministers who residing with are presumed best to know the Necessities of the People The Composing of Prayers we see is in the Church the Imposing them lyes in the Chief Magistrate who is Supreme in his Realm in all Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil For the Church being incorporated into the State neither of them can be well govern'd unless the Prince be Supreme in both And therefore a great Man hath hath told us That the Church directing and the Sovereign Enacting have ever had this Power since the State became Christian Neither can we see how things can be better ordered than that what is well considered and tendered by the Church should be ratified by the Sanction and Authority of the Prince But you it seems think your self wiser than both and can order these things better by your present Conceptions than they upon all their Deliberation and that because you residing with can better know the Necessities of the People When Sir will you be so modest as to think the Rulers in Church and State better Judges of the general Necessities of the People than you or any private Person Is there any thing in the
fear you suspect your Cause too much to leave it in those Hands You are sensible that an Hundred to One is great Odd's and know pretty well what a scurvy Reflexion 't is upon any Notion to say of it 'T is but one Docters Opinion and yet at last I think in your Case 't will hardly amount to that However your Hopes are in Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins Let us see then upon what Grounds these Hopes are founded and what support the Conventicle is like to find from those two Pillars of the Church I begin then with Bishop Hall and here what you alledge from him is from his Writings in Vindication of the Liturgy A very unlikely Book to condemn what it designs to Vindicate or to set up Free Prayer above Forms which the Author daily us'd and practis'd Himself But what is it that you Quote from him Why Writing in Vindication of the Liturgy you say he hath these Words This doth not plead against all present Conceptions in Prayer or Preaching nor derogate any thing from the Reveren'd and Pious esteem of conceiv'd Prayer And who saith it does in its due time and place Doubtless Sir if you can but distinguish between publick and private Prayer you will soon see the sense of that Reverend Bishop and your own mistake in this Matter He is pleading you say in that Book for a publick and standing Liturgy for the more solemn and decent performance of publick Worship and having learnedly evinced the expediency both of the Use and Injunction of it he subjoyns these Words This doth not plead c. Meaning that tho the publick Service of God be best celebrated by a set prescribed Liturgy that People may know their Prayers and more readily joyn in them yet there are Seasons of private and secret Devotion wherein they are allow'd the Freedom of their own Conceptions and Expressions And what wise Man ever thought or said otherwise So that this gives no help or countenance at all to your Cause But if that will not do you bring in that Reverend Bishop farther saying I do from my Soul honour both I gladly make use of both and praise God for them as the gracious exercises of Christian Piety and the Effectual furtherances of Salvation Doubtless says he in the next Page all Christian Divines have ever had that Liberty in all the Churches that have ever profest the Name of Christ neither ought or can it be denyed to any either of the Foreign Churches or our own In the former Words that Reverend Father had shew'd his Opinion in these he lets us know his Practice in this Matter which is that he honoured both publick and private Devotion and gladly made use of the publick Liturgy of the Church in the one and of his own Free and conceived Prayers in the other A pious and excellent Practice Which I know no Christian Church does Condemn and I heartily wish that all who profess the Name of Christ would imitate But what is this to your using and preferring your own sudden Conceptions in publick Worship before and against an establish'd Liturgy Where does that pious and reverend Prelate give the least countenance to Conventicles or seperate Meetings in Opposition to publick Orders and Constitutions Or set up Free Prayer as a Decoy to draw People from the set Prayers of the Church This I am well assured you will never find in the Writings of that or any other Bishop And yet you seem to glory in this Quotation as if it stubb'd up all Liturgies by the Root and that no Forms of Prayer could ever appear more or stand before it Is it not strange that Men who so little understand themselves should think themselves wiser than all their Superiours And thus take upon them to teach or rather to mislead and delude others Using all their Arts to bring the People out of love with the Prayers of the Church and seducing them from all the wholsome Orders and Constitutions of it Take heed Sir that your Artifices and Impostures be not too visible for many well meaning People begin to discern and smell them out and if they be too gross and palpable it may prove of very dangerous Consequence for tho' Great is Diana of the Ephesians was a profitable Cry while it lasted yet when the People saw the Vanity of the Idol there was an end of the Silver Shrines If you would know the true Sense and Mind of Bishop Hall in this Matter you may find it in that mild and moderate Book of his called The Peace-maker in which he goes as far as possible for an Accommodation Yet there you may read these Words Sect. 7. page 52. 53. We are far from giving way to every Combination of Christians to run aside and to raise up a new Church of their own and to challenge all the Privileges incident to a lawful Church of Christ as equally due to their Segregation for this were to build up Babel instead of Jerusalem Faciunt Favos et Vespae as he goes on even Wasps meet together in some holes of Earth or hollow Trees and make Combs as well as the profitable Bees but none ever thought them worthy of a Hive c. Where you see that Reverend Prelate's Opinion concerning Conventicles and separate Meetings which he stiles Segregations from the unity of the Church and running aside from the Orders and Privileges of it yea he compares those that haunt them to Wasps who though they meet in Corners are yet more pernicious than profitable where they Nest Again in the same Section you may find these Words It may not be endured that in matters of Religion every Man should think what he lists and utter what he thinks and defend what he utters and publish what he defends and gather Disciples to what he publisheth this Liberty or Licentiousness rather would be the Bane of any Church With much more to the same purpose And now what think you Sir is the Famous and Learned Bishop Hall a Friend to Separation and Extempore-Effusions in publick Worship Nay is he not a plain Enemy to all Confusion and Disorders of that Nature Does he not in that forecited Treatise passionately bewail these things as the Wounds and Blemishes of the Church And earnestly entreat and exhort all Christians against them This you will find at large if you will peruse that and many other of his pious Writings Thus you see how little you have got by this Quotation and how you have mist your Aim in bringing that Reverend Father to Countenance your Dreams and Delusions But you have one Twig more to hang by and that is the Authority of Bishop Wilkins How far that will hold shall be examined in my next with which if you have nothing more to offer I purpose to close up I am Sir Yours M. H. June 25 1697. LETTER XX. To J. M. SIR I Shewed in my last what little Countenance your Conventicles and Free
Prayer could find from the Authority of Bishop Hall I come now to see whether they are like to find any better from the Authority of Bishop Wilkins This is your last Refuge and if this Prop fails your Cause may be in some danger of Sinking What you alledge from him is out of a Book Intitled The Gift of Prayer from which I find you transcribing many passages upon all occasions In that Book the learned Author endeavour'd to reduce Free conceived Prayer into an Art a Design as himself acknowledges that was perfectly new and never attempted by any before him Now that must be acknowledg'd to be a very considerable prejudice to the Undertaking for new Devices and Inventions in Religion have been ever found to be very dangerous and all Churches have felt the Mischief and inconveniences of such Novelties He that walks in a new and untrodden Path may easily lose his Way and many by leaving the Antient Track have found themselves in the Briers Jer. 6.16 and therefore we are bid to Enquire for the old Ways and to walk in them it being much more safe to keep in the beaten Road of Antiquity than to seek out and wander in the By-paths of Innovations But to come to the Book We find that Great man in the Preface wondring that so little should be said or written on that Subject to help him in his Undertaking Now this Wonder may soon cease by calling to mind that all Christian Churches in all times and places perform'd their Publick Worship by Set prescribed Forms and so as there was no use so neither was there any need of this Artificial Gift which is a sufficient Reason of the Silence of Antiquity about it But when this Art began to be studied and put in practice it soon became an Instrument of Division and is at this day one of the principal Wiles and Artifices of Seducers Accordingly therefore this Great man finding the bad Effects of this new Experiment in Divinity and observing how greedily it was catch'd at and abus'd by Sectaries thought fit to abandon this New Art without adding improving or so much as correcting the Imperfections of it and He himself to his dying day became a constant frequenter of the Publick Prayers of the Church and likewise according to the Duty of his Office strictly kept his Clergy to them But the better to clear up this Matter you must consider Sir the Time of the writing of that Book together with the Occasion and End for which 't was written and then you will soon see what little stress is to be laid upon it For the Time of writing it 't was when the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England were by a prevailing Faction laid aside and all godly Forms of Prayer decry'd at which time a whole Deluge of Errors and new Opinions broke in upon us and by the help of Free Prayer were vented and spread abroad to the great increase of Sects and Schisms among us By this means Men lost the Reverence that is due to the Divine Majesty bespeaking him in a loose careless and indecent manner and the Solemnity of Prayer was prostituted to vile and secular purposes Now to remedy those Evils this Great Man wrote this Book to direct Men in this Duty when they were deprived of the Assistance of Forms and to preserve if possible some Sense in their Prayers at a time when there was so little of it to be heard Moreover if we consider the manner and model drawn up by this Reverend Person for this purpose we shall find it in effect to be This. When one sort of Forms were cryed down he endeavoured to bring up another that is when Book-Forms were removed by the subtlety of Designing Men p. 11. he endeavoured to set up Mental-Forms or repeating their Prayers by memory which he stiles An invisible Book for the Register of our Thoughts hoping thereby to keep up that sense and seriousness that was requisite in this Duty there being but little difference as he tells us betwixt Repeating by memory and Reading out of a Book That this was the main drift of the Author in that Book appears by these following things First p. 10. He forbid's Men to depend altogether upon sudden Suggestions or Effusions as if it were A Quenching or Confinement of the Spirit to be furnished before-hand with Matter and Expressions for this Service p. 13. In another place he requires them To prepare themselves by study and premeditation for this Duty that is as appears by what is mentioned before to lay up both Matter and Words in their Memory for the more decent and orderly performance of it Again p. 3. 18 he condemns leavning these things to suddain Infusion which occasions Mens bespeaking God Almighty in a loose and careless manner Furthermore he would have them settle and compose their Thoughts or fix these things in their Memory p. 19. for the more solemn performance of this Duty that they may the better avoid all idle impertinent and wild Expressions the usual Embellishments of Extempore-Prayer Secondly p. 17. He condemns all Affectation of varying Words and Phrases in Prayer by which means Men become expos'd to empty vain and unseemly Expressions Now you know Sir that the great difference between Forms and Free Prayer is that in the former the same Words are used upon the same occasions and the latter changes Phrases without any necessity and 't is well known that the chief Excellency of the conceived Prayers of Sectaries lies in this vanity of Variation which this Great Man severely condemns Thirdly He condemns all Affecttaion of Length which you know is one of the great Ornaments and Attendants of Free Prayer p. 17. and to avoid this Prolixity p. 19. he cautions against all empty Repetitions and Digressions letting us know Eccl. 5.2 that God is in Heaven and we are upon Earth therefore our Words should be few Fourthly This Author distinguisheth between Praying in Publick with others p. 16. and Praying Secretly betwixt God and our own Souls allowing Men in secret to take a greater Liberty of enlarging themselves in their own Expressions which though not in themselves so significant and proper may yet suit their Minds and serve to set forth their own immediate Thoughts But in Publick Prayers where we are the Mouth of others and should engage the Affections of those that joyn with us there greater care must be taken that our Expressions be so proper and deliberate as may be most Effectual to that End and for that purpose prefers premeditated Forms wherein Matter and Words are prepared before hasty and present Conceptions In a word this Reverend Author places the great work and business of Prayer p. 2. 3. in the Heart which he stiles the Life and Spirit of it and consequently the Words are but the Carkaess and Shell of it adding withal that 't is not essential to Prayer