if it be uttered with the lips without the intention of the heart it is a bare similitude and if the other be read or uttered after an holy manner with that affection which God requireth in prayer it is true and acceptable prayer Words without the heart are but empty sounds whether read or pronounced out of the memory or ex tempore and if the voice be joyned with the heart it is pleasant melody though our petitions be read out of a book But the book then saith he supplieth the room of the word and spirit Nothing lesse For the word of God directeth us what to ask even when we reade our prayers upon a book so long as we crave with understanding things agreeable to the will of God And the spirit doth enable and stirre us up to desire that which is according to Gods will and our necessity We may utter requests with our lips in conceived prayer without the aid and assistance of the holy Ghost and so we may in a penned prayer but offer up the sighs and grones of the heart we cannot without his grace It is no more lawfull to use any strange manner of prayer then it was to use strange fire or strange incense in time of the law Psal 141. 2. Apoc. 8. 3 4. But a stinted form of prayer is a strange manner of prayer The proposition we grant if rightly understood otherwise symbolicall and analogicall arguments if the proposition be not rightly taken are very dangerous But a stinted form of prayer is no strange manner of worship because in it all things required to the nature of true prayer may be observed In the word of God we have direction given to whom for what with what heart and affection to what end a man ought to pray but in what method or frame of speech he is to be a petitioner we find nothing prescribed in particular neither do we judge any thing necessary more then this That order decency and edification be observed That which hath the common nature definition use and end of worship but wanteth Divine authority and institution to make it approved and true worship that is strange in the worship of God But the method and phrase of speech hath not the common nature definition use or end of worship or prayer belonging unto it As conceived prayer so a set form of prayer is for substance and nature agreeable to the rules of direction delivered in the word of truth though for method and words both the humane Let our brethren set down out of the word of God what is necessarily and essentially required to the nature and being of true prayer shew if they be able that some one or other condition or requisite cannot be observed in a prescript or stinted form If this cannot be done as I think it never hath nor can be how dare they esteem or style it a strange worship They tell us God hath not ordained that manner of worship But this phrase the manner of worship is used two wayes first as it noteth the substantiall means of worship ordained of God by speciall institution secondly as it is put for the outward order or form how this worship or means of worship is performed A third signification might be added as when we say the third commandment teacheth in what manner the name and ordinances of God are to be used Now if it be taken in the first or third signification the outward frame of words order and method is neither means nor manner of worship either in preaching prayer or administration of the sacraments If in the second the word of God doth not prescribe any particular form stinted or not stinted as necessary but doth warrant both as allowable For where nothing is in particular commanded touching the externall form of words and order in which our petitions should be presented to the Lord there we are left at liberty And to put religion in reading or uttering words in a stinted or conceived form where God hath laid no bond upon the conscience what is it lesse then superstition If the phrase of speech be modus or medium cultûs as it is referred to the second commandment then it is instituted commanded and determined of God in particular then that and none other is lawfull and necessary for so it is in all parts of his positive worship Those sacramentall signes which God hath designed in the covenant are necessary and those onely lawfull and if method and phrase of speech be medium cultûs in the same sense the like must be said of that also In substance a prayer read and conceived is all one and the one is no more a strange manner of worship then the other And here let it be observed that all these objections are made against all use of stinted or read prayers publick or private voluntary or imposed sound and pertinent as well as corrupt and cannot be restrained to a form imposed upon the minister of the congregation to be used continually and that corrupt and faulty The matter if supposed to be alike from God as being truth and according to sound doctrine the manner in that we call conceived prayer is the same which nature teacheth and scripture approveth and is the onely way in which the prayers of all holy men recorded in scripture since Christ have been carried as the Papists themselves grant But for the manner or way of book-prayer we have not so much as example in scripture for it The strength of this reason let us view in the like M r Smith would prove the originals not to be given as helps before the eye in worship Because upon the day of Pentecost and many yeares after the churches of the new Testament did use no books in time of spirituall worship but prayed prophesied and sung psalmes merely out of their hearts Acts 2. 4 42. 10. 44 48. 19. 6. 1. Cor. 14. 15 17 26 37. Because no example can be shewed of any man ordinary or extraordinary that at or after the day of Pentecost used a book in praying prophesying and singing of Psalmes if yea let it be done and we yield And against the use of translations for the hearers thus he argueth The Prophets and Apostles wrote books but did never divide their books into chapters and verses Seeing therefore that chapters and verses were of mans invention hence it followeth before chapter and verse came in the hearers could not turn to search their books in time of hearing The Apostles in quoting testimonies of the prophets do not quote chapter and verse but onely say It is written The scripture saith The holy Ghost saith thereby teaching us that there is no use of chapter and verse for searching in time of hearing Never was there mention made of any hearer that ever had his book to search in time of hearing The reasons be the same and yet I perswade my self they
proved already Why may they not as lawfully command to preach by reading of Homilies as to pray by reading of the Liturgie both which are contrary to the institution of Christ and the holy scriptures The two feet upon which the dumb ministery standeth like Nebuchadnezzars image upon the feet of iron and clay are the book of Common prayer and of Homilies the reading of the former which is the right foot serving them for Prayer and the other for Preaching Which feet if they were smitten as were the other with the stone cut without hands the whole Idole-priesthood would fall and be broken a-pieces as that other image was This objection presupposeth that there is some great affinity betwixt a stinted Liturgie and an idle ministry which is a bare conjecture For in the Primitive church the abettours mainteiners and in part devisers of stinted Liturgies have and for ever shall be renowned in the church of God for their constant continuall and unwearied pains and industry in preaching the Gospel It is a thing notoriously known and confessed that Cyprian Ambrose Chrysostome and Augustine did all of them allow and approve and some of them devise stinted forms of Liturgies and yet who almost for diligence and labour in teaching the people in the wayes of salvation to be compared unto them Of their learning and zeal it is needlesse to say any thing For three of them there is plentifull testimony that they preached every day in the week and yeare at least once or twice without fail Ye heard yesterday Ye shall heare to morrow is common in their tractates and homilies Augustine even to the extremity of his sicknesse preached the word of God in his church cheerfully and boldly with a sound mind and judgement without any intermission at all The like diligence is noted in others who lived before and about those times in all which a stinted Liturgie was in use And generally the Fathers in the primitive church presse the knowledge of the scriptures residence upon his charge diligence in reading meditation prayer and instruction of the people as duties requisite and necessary and by no means to be neglected or omitted of the minister They also exhort the people not onely to heare the word of God but to learn it by heart to instruct and warn one another to sing psalmes conferre religiously begin and end their feasts with solemn prayer reade the scriptures in their houses and discourse thereof one with another for their mutuall profit and edification and to call their families children wives servants friends and neighbours together and to repeat the sermons they heare at church-together after the sermon ended Such exhortations are common and ordinary in them who approved stinted Liturgies Let one of you take in hand the holy book and by the heavenly words having called his neighbours about him let him water and refresh both their minte and his own Being at home we may both before and after meat take the holy books in hand and thereof receive great profit and minister spirituall food unto our souls Gregorie disalloweth that such should attend to singing and modulation of the voice who should apply themselves to the office of preaching Hierome cut short the lessons when whole books were read in order before that so there might he time for preaching Durantus himself misliketh the men that extra modum ordinem orationes multiplicant unde auditores sibi ingratos efficiunt populum Dei potiùs fastidio avertunt quà m alliciunt And Petrus de Aliaco counselleth quòd in Divino officio non tam â—nerosa prolixitas quà m devota integra brevitas servaretur A stinted Liturgie then in it self doth not abbridge nor hinder the liberty of preaching or prayer according to the speciall present occasions nor ought it so to do For when the minister of the Gospel is bound to be instant in season and out of season to teach exhort reprove with all long suffering and patience these necessary and wholesome functions of the holy ministery must not be trust out or hindred And it is not hard to shew the wisedome and moderation of the churches in their prescribed catechismes stinted prayers and exhortations in the administration of the sacraments c. to be such that they have allowed time convenient both for preaching and prayer according as God hath enabled his messengers In these times of this reformation the pains of such whom God stirred up first to preach the Gospel and instruct the people in the wayes of salvation was almost miraculous and yet generally they approved and devised a publick stinted form of Liturgie As for Homilies they were first allowed in the church not to uphold or maintein an ignorant ministery or to supply his defect that should take pains but would not much lesse to shut out preaching but to supply the casuall defect of preaching through the weaknesse and infirmitie of the minister CHAP. V. A stinted form of prayer doth not quench the Spirit THe Spirit of Grace enableth us to pray and maketh requests for us but worketh by means It instructeth us what to ask not in what phrase of speech It stirreth up in us holy desires but giveth not abilitie suddenly and without help to expresse and lay open our hearts in fit method and words significant As the Spirit doth perswade and assure the heart that the scripture is the word of God not witnessing of the letters syllables and words but of the matter and saving truth therein conteined So the Spirit instructeth us to pray by opening our eyes to see our misery and inflaming our hearts with a longing desire of mercy and relief in the mediation of Jesus Christ but it giveth not abilitie evermore to utter and expresse these our desires in fit and decent phrase of speech Abilitie of speech is a common gift of the Spirit which the Lord bestoweth upon good and bad Yea many times gracelesse persons are herein preferred before the most sincere and upright and many an honest heart can cry aloud for mercy who is scarce able to utter one distinct and perfect sentence in fit words and order Let no man except that ministers have better abilities For when the Apostle saith the Spirit is given to help our infirmities who know not how to pray as we ought he speaketh of all beleevers as well others as ministers private prayers as well as publick And whosoever is enabled or provoked to lift up any one sigh or grone unto God or to make apologie for himself in the mediation of Christ in any manner it is by the holy Ghost These things considered I suppose all men will grant 1. That it is lawfull for a man before-hand to meditate on his own particular wants and the necessities of others and that he may more fully understand and more sensibly be affected with them to reade good books which unfold the
and through Jesus Christ To God onely as the chief best and most perfect good through Christ as our Mediatour in whom we have accesse to the throne of grace Prayer is not a work of nature but of grace The principall authour thereof is the holy Ghost Man indeed doth poure out his soul unto the Lord but he is first taught moved and enabled thereunto by the Spirit of grace so that prayer is Gods gift and mans act The matter of our prayer is diverse according to the sundry occasions which happen in this life but ever it must be agreeable to the word and will of God Understanding faith humilitie reverence fervencie holinesse and love are required to that prayer which is acceptable unto God and doth procure audience In prayer with others especially in publick prayer where the minister is the mouth of the people the use of the voice is necessarie for the edification of the hearers for they cannot joyn in supplication and yield their consent unlesse they heare and understand what is prayed for In solitary prayer the voice and words are very usefull but not necessary usefull to stirre up affection and prevent rovings not necessary because it is the soul only that doth animate prayer A man may pray fervently and speak never a word but words be of no worth if the heart be absent Prayer endited by the Spirit and poured out by a sanctified soul is ever sweet and pleasant melodie in the eares of God though the tongue keep silence and the phrase of speech be rough and unpolished But let the outward frame of words be never so smooth and well set together the prayer is not pleasing unto God if therein we crave things unlawfull and impertinent if it be read or uttered without intention of heart understanding faith c. Neverthelesse in prayer with others specially in the publick assemblie words and decent phrase must not be neglected because all things must be done gravely and to edification To place devotion in words is superstition to hunt after quaint terms is foolish vanity but to neglect a decent and comely manner of speech is barbarousnesse Seeing then the use of the voice is not of the essence of prayer no man of understanding will deny that to be an holy and acceptable prayer which proceedeth from a sincere and upright heart feeling its own or others wants and craving supply thereof according to Gods will whether the petitions be put up in the self-same or in other words And yet because the ordinances of God must be kept from contempt in the publick assembly it is good neither to be over-neat nor over-homely but to use such a mean as doth most tend to the glory of God and good of Gods people Here a question is moved Whether a stinted Liturgie or set form of prayer publick or private be lawfull in the deviser or user A penned or stinted prayer I call Prayer in respect of the matter and externall form because the matter is delivered in form of a prayer or supplication tendred to God though properly it is not a prayer as it is penned or printed but as it is rehearsed as our prayer with understanding feeling of our wants humilitie confidence c. The controversie is not of this or that prescript form in particular much lesse of one faulty or erroneous but of a prescript form in generall Whether it be lawfull especially in the publick assembly to appoint any prescript or set form of prayer though for matter never so sound and allowable For if the exception be against this or that form in respect of the matter or maner of imposing then the question should be Whether this prayer for matter or manner of imposing be erroneous not Whether a stinted form of prayer or Liturgie be lawfull It is not questioned whether a man may ask things unlawfull or impertinent in prayer for the matter of our prayer must be agreeable to the word of God and our present occasions A prayer for matter and externall form holy and fit may by accident be sinfull in the user viz. when it is repeated without understanding or intention of the heart Of this there is no doubt It is granted also that no one prescript and stinted form of prayer or Liturgie is simply necessary either in publick or private for then our Saviour Christ who would not be wanting to his church in things necessarie would by his Apostles expressely have set down one to be an exact and unchangeable rule to all Christians and churches to the worlds end both for matter and form words and method whereunto they should have been tied and that alwayes But seeing our Saviour hath commanded no such unchangeable form it is not the Necessity but the Lawfulnesse of a stinted Liturgie or set form of prayer that is pleaded for and that as a matter of order not of religion or substantiall means of worship For in this sense there is no means of worship expedient which is not necessary by commandment It was never held that a man should so tie himself or be tied alwayes to a set form without variation that he should never offer up any prayer unto God as occasion is offered and necessitie requireth but what he findeth in his book Such use of a set and stinted form of prayer we do not acknowledge nor seek to perswade But to reade prayer as a prayer upon a book or to make known unto God the desires of our heart in a set form of words devised by others or our selves when the things we beg are allowable fit and necessary and when it is done with right affection is contrary to no precept or commandment directly or by lawfull consequence Amongst them that oppose a set form of prayer we may observe differences in opinion The ancient brethren of the Separation as M r Smith calleth them for distinction condemn all stinted forms of prayer to be used as a prayer Thus they dispute against set or stinted forms of prayer that it is a devise of man an Idole-prayer a stinting of the Spirit the substituting of a book in the room and stead of the holy Ghost a drawing nigh to God with the lips when the heart is removed farre from him That if set forms be lawfull then one may make anothers prayer buy his prayers at a book-binders shop carry them about in his pocket with many the like Which arguments whatsoever their weight be strike at all set forms and not at this or that onely prescribed in this or that manner M r Robinson hideth the matter as much as well he may by such like additions as these of matter and manner The thing saith he you should have endeavoured to prove is That your Divine service-book framed by man and by man imposed to be used without addition or alteration as the solemn worship of your church is that true and spirituall manner of
particular sinnes against the law of God the state of man by nature and the condition of the Saints and of the church as also to think upon the works of Gods providence and how he is pleased to deal with his people in all places 2. The better to stirre up confidence and affection and to furnish himself with words and matter it is not unlawfull nor unprofitable to reade the prayers of the godly registred in holy scripture or published in other godly books to observe the matter of their prayer their ferventnesse in praying and the arguments wherewith they pressed their suits and contended for audience 3. After a man hath collected matter for prayer by meditation and reading he may studie to digest it into due order and method and to expresse his requests in fit and decent speech and the same so conceived he may utter as a prayer according as occasion shall offer it self The reason may be thus contracted If the Spirit of God doth work by means and stir up good desires but giveth not abilitie to expresse our desires in fitting significant words 〈◊〉 it is lawfull for us to use all godly means to stirr up the graces of God in us and premediate how we may utter our requests in such form and manner as may best serve for our quickning and the edification of others And if the use of a premeditated form of words in prayer do not stint the Spirit in a sinfull manner a set form of prayer cannot be condemned as injurious to the Spirit The Spirit of God is the onely sufficient help which God giveth us to help our infirmities in the time of prayer Rom. 8. 26. Gal. 4. 6. Zech. 12. 10. We confesse most willingly that prayer is not a work of nature wit or learning but of the Spirit of grace True desire or abilitie to pray is not bred in us by nature nor procured and gotten by our study and industry but proceedeth onely from the holy Ghost as the authour and efficient and this is proved by the places quoted But ability to pray standeth in the lifting up of the soul unto God not in the ample expression of our desires according to the various occasions in fit words and pressing them with forcible arguments Prayer is the immediate work of the Spirit But no text of scripture doth in such sense make the holy Ghost the authour of prayer or helper of our infirmities as that it should be unlawfull to make use of outward means to furnish the soul with matter stirre up the graces of God in the heart and blow the coals of the spirit For then we must not reade the scriptures nor other godly books we may not meditate or conferre the better to fit us for prayer Peradventure it will be said the Spirit of God is our onely helper in the time of prayer so that at other times we may use helps to stirre up the graces of the Spirit but not in the time of prayer And if this distinction be found in scripture or by sound reason may be deduced out of scripture we must hearken unto it but if it be of our selves whiles we pleade against the devises of men we maintein devises The Spirit of grace is at all times the sole mover and enabler of us to pray and the use of lawfull helps and such as suite with the nature of prayer are at no time unlawfull As it is fit to meditate and reade before we pray so in prayer it is lawfull to kneel lift up the eyes and hands use the help of the voyce and the benefit of a Christian friend to stirre up affection Therefore for the lawfulnesse of book-prayer we may dispute thus If it be lawfull to use externall helps in time of prayer the better to stirre up affection then book-prayer is not to be condemned for this that the Spirit of God is the onely or sufficient help that God giveth to help our infirmities in the time of prayer But it is lawfull to use externall helps in time of prayer The Spirit alone either immediately or by means sanctified and ordained by himself maketh requests for us yea it is by the immediate teachings and suggestions of the Spirit that all our requests must be put up no other helps are mentioned or can be collected in the present action of prayer I will not stand to enquire how these things can agree together what is meant by the immediate teachings of the Spirit or how the Spirit maketh requests either immediately or by means The Spirit alone and that immediately is the authour of prayer but by means he ministreth varietie of matter order and words But what are we to understand by means sanctified and ordained by himself If means ordained by speciall institution it is too strait and hard to conceive what they be If means allowed by God as those whereby we may furnish our selves with words and matter for prayer as reading godly books conference meditation on the works of God c. a stinted form of prayer is a means sanctified And here I desire it may be noted in what sense a form of prayer is called a means or furtherance not as a means or form of worship properly so called but as in fit words and phrases it presenteth to our minds or memories what we ought to beg agreeable to the word of God as the frame of words and matter kept in memory may be called and is reputed a stinted form A stinted form of prayer quencheth the Spirit It is a quenching of the Spirit to reade another mans prayer upon a book That quencheth the Spirit which is as water to cool or allay or exstinguish the heat of that holy fire which cannot be imputed to a set form of prayer either by authoritie of scripture or sound reason Reading godly books is an exercise profitable to stirre up the graces of Gods Spirit in us were it not a wonder if reading a godly prayer should produce the contrary effect As in the ministery of the word the corruption of mans heart and the hainousnesse of sinne may more lively and fully be discovered for his humiliation then he is able of himself to set it forth so in prayer penned by a goldy andwell experienced Christian the case of a distressed soul may more pithily and amply be deciphred and anatomized then he of himself is able to lay it open And in such case to deny this lawfull help is to take away a crutch from the lame and bread from the hungry In the very act of prayer it is lawfull to use outward helps whereby we may be enabled to pray better and shall it not be lawfull for a burdened soul perplexed with doubtings overwhelmed with bitter anguish to use the help of a book that he might the better unfold and lay open his misery into the bosome of his loving Father The ample and particular laying open of our necessities doth ease the
the Old Testament from the apostles at their first conversion but suddenly they could not be translated into every language and till they were translated they could not be read in the congregation unto edifying The books of the New Testament could not be delivered untill they were written but they were not written all at once and when they were all written being sent to severall churches it must be some time before they could be gathered together and translated And if nothing be allowable in the church but what was found in the primitive churches planted by the apostles by record of scripture I fear the reading of the scriptures in a known tongue must be cast out of the congregations I go not about to equalize stinted Liturgies with set translations of the holy scriptures but I would intreat such as oppose a stinted Liturgie by these reasons to consider whether they do not put weapons into the adversaries hands to fight against the scriptures Again set forms of catechismes publick or private composed by the minister or devised by others used with liberty to adde or alter as occasion requireth are no more commanded of God then set forms of prayer nor no more in use in the apostolick churches Christ our Saviour the Prophets or Apostles have no more appointed the one then the other if all parts of holy and spirituall worship may be performed without a stinted Liturgie they may be performed also without a stinted or set catechisme and if a set form of prayer must be disallowed a set form of catechisme publick or private composed by the minister or devised by others must be condemned also But the antiquity excellency and necessity of catechizing is known to them who are exercised in the building and governing of the house of God the use and profit of a set form therein is both manifest by reason and confirmed by experience at home and abroad in publick and private to them who have laboured to lay the foundation of Christian religion and train up the people committed to their charge in sound wisdome and understanding And in these things we swerve not from our pattern because we teach and professe the same doctrine and worship God with the same worship and substantiall means of worship that the primitive churches and Christians did There is the same reason of reading the Apocrypha books of Maccabees and those that follow them in the congregation and of reading a stinted form of Liturgie and the same reasons that silence the Apocrypha will silence stinted prayers as well and as much When we prove the lawfulnesse of a stinted form of prayer by the stinted forms of psalmes and blessing mentioned in scripture it is thought answer sufficient to say There is great difference betwixt blessings or psalmes and prayer and yet here it is enough to match things unlike together and to say of them without all proof There is the same reason of both But if it have any sinews it will silence the singing of psalmes sermons professions of faith and conceived prayer no lesse then stinted especially the use of notes to help memory and forms of catechisme by whomsoever and howsoever used For there is the same reason of reading and uttering by heart in the congregation And if nothing but the canonicall scriptures must be read in the congregation nothing must be uttered by heart or strength of memory but the scriptures alone But sermons professions of faith conceived prayer are not canonicall scripture The reason is one and whatsoever can be answered truly in the one will put the other to flight If it be said That it is the prerogative of the scripture to be the rule of faith and manners and therefore nothing is to be read in the congregation as the ground undoubted and immediate of faith and manners but the scripture alone this openeth way for stinted prayer as well as for sermons or conceived prayer The substantiall means of worship both publick and private are determined of God It is unlawfull to set up an image for worship either publick or private The scripture must be acknowledged the sole rule of faith and manners both in publick and private It is unlawfull to devise sacramentall signes in private as well as in the congregation And if it be unlawfull to reade any other book in the congregation because the reading of the scripture is the onely approved medium cultûs by the same reason all forms of catechismes and singing of psalmes and reading or use of stinted praiers in the family are unlawfull And if the one be an image in the congregation the others are so in the family When the Lord had devised and appointed a perfume saith the authour of the Letter all men are forbidden to make a composition like that perfume Exod. 30. 35 37. So if it could be proved that Christ had made a form for the churches and believers alwayes when they pray then the offering up of any other prayers made by others or of our own devising would seem to be as unlawfull as the offering of strange incense Exod. 30. 9. Where it is implyed that seeing God hath determined no certain form therefore forms devised by men are not necessary but lawfull In the same manner they may be answered from their own grounds That seeing God hath sanctified and set apart the canonicall scriptures given by immediate Divine inspiration to be the sole and perfect rule of faith and manners therefore the scripture alone must be read and acknowledged as the sole ground of heavenly instruction But seeing he hath determined no certain form of prayer or sermons professions of faith or thanksgiving therefore either none at all must be made or forms devised by men are lawfull to be heard in the congregation yet not as immediate and undoubted grounds of faith for that is proper to the scripture but as instructions and exhortations builded upon or petitions framed according to the scripture as present occasion doth require In sermons who doth not put a difference betwixt the text whereupon the discourse instructions exhortations rebukes comforts be grounded deduced the exhortations rebukes comforts which are propounded in method phrase of speech devised by men The first is ought to be canonicall scripture the other not so But it would argue great ignorance if not perversenesse if a man should cavill in this manner against the preaching of the word That the scriptures alone are to be read in the congregation therefore the minister of the Gospel must simply reade the scripture but never give the meaning nor make application In the Primitive church sundry councels have forbidden the reading of any books as parts of Divine worship but canonicall scripture onely of the Old and New Testament but no councel ever condemned the use of a stinted Liturgie Those churches which forbad the reading of any books which be without the canon did
which assembled every day the word was preached every day And in the congregations which assembled every Lords day after the reading of the lessons psalmes and evangelists the word was preached constantly before they were dismissed The time specially appointed or taken for the sermon was the morning after the reading of the prophets and psalmes and evangelists In the afternoon as assemblies so sermons were frequent and two or more sermons were made in one and the same congregation sometimes by one sometimes by divers ministers After the sermon ended followed the prayers of the congregation as the testimonies before alledged plentifully confirm Clemen Constit lib. 2. cap. 57. After the exhortation of the Presbyter and the Bishop all pray unto God Justin Apol. 2. ad Anton. Then we rise all and pray together sc after the exhortation ended Origen Hom. 3. in Isa Idcirco surgentes oremus Deum Hom. 36. in Luc. Surgamus precemúrque Deum Chrysost Hom. 50. ad cap. 14. Matth. But now it is time to conclude our speech with prayer orate igitur universi nobiscum In all which we see the wisdome of the church so moderated the length of the Liturgie that each ordinance of God had its proper season that reading and prayer did not thrust out preaching nor preaching eat up prayer that the weak were not tired and burdened nor the sluggish fostered in their securitie And if a Liturgie be onely burdensome for length it is not altogether to be cast off For the thing it self is thereby justified as good and allowable that which burdeneth being taken away And it is much better to wrestle against bodily tirednesse with spirituall fervour then deprive themselves of the comfort and profit which is to be had in the ordinances of God The worship of God by that stinted form whereof our question is is the devise of Antichrist it being never prescribed or used in the primitive churches planted by the apostles and recorded in scripture But as the mystery wrought to a greater height in declining times of the church it was received by little and little till at last it came to be completely framed strictly enjoyned and every where used in the papacy as serving to maintein superstition and a dumbe idole-reading ministery and to nourish people in ignorance of the nature and right use of prayer The Masse-book is in Latine this Liturgie-book is in English the Masse-book hath all the prayers this Liturgie hath and some more other differences I know not between them Therefore king Edward the sixth in his letter to the Devonshire-men to convince them that their Liturgie was our service telleth them that it was no other but the old and the self-same words in English which were in Latine save a few things taken out which were so fond that it was a shame to heare them in English And king James in a speech of his in Scotland said that their English Liturgie was an ill-said Masse Pope Pius the fourth sending Vincentio Parpatia Abbat of S. Saviour to Qu. Elisabeth offered to confirm the English Liturgie by his authoritie if she would yield to him in some other things Indeed this Liturgie pleased them so well that for the first eleven years of Qu. Elizabeth Papists came to the English churches and service as the Lord Cook sheweth And when the Popes intelligencers had seen service solemnly sung and said in Canterbury and London with all their pomp and procession they wondred that their master would be so unadvised as to interdict a Prince or State whose service and ceremonies so symbolized with his own The whole form then of the church-service a few grosse things taken out is borrowed from the Papists culled and picked out of that popish dung-hill the Portuis and vile Masse-book But that form of prayer by which God is worshipped after the manner that idolaters worship their Gods swerveth from a rule of prayer prescribed in scripture Deut. 12. 3 4. 30. 31 32. And this is made the first of the exceptions against the common-prayer-book which were briefly added to in the Abbridgement That it appointed a Liturgie which in the whole matter and form thereof is too like unto the Masse-book The main challenge in this objection which I have set down more at large because it is much insisted upon against our communion-book is That it was taken out of the masse-book But in the manner of propounding there be divers great mistakes to say no more It is a great fault that they put no difference betwixt the substance of worship and the externall form or order of celebration The substance of worship in that stinted form of prayer is That we call upon God in the mediation of Jesus Christ according to his will Is this the devise of Antichrist because the form of words was taken out of the masse-masse-book Suppose a minister of the Gospel should borrow some expressions or phrases of speech from heathen authours is his sermon forthwith the invention or devise of an heathen It is as far wide that they say Not onely the form of it taken from the church of Antichrist but surely the matter also For the matter of our Liturgie is the reading of the scriptures in a known tongue the calling upon God in the mediation of Jesus Christ and not upon angels or saints departed for the living and not for the dead the right administration of the sacraments for substance and singing of psalmes are these the devises of Antichrist Is the administration of the Lords supper in both kinds in remembrance of Christs death and passion who by one oblation of himself once offered hath made a full perfect and sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world is this taken from the church of Antichrist These imputations are not so grosse as their reasons weak upon which they are built If our stinted Liturgy be the devise of Antichrist because it is not prescribed by the apostles or recorded in scripture then every stinted Liturgie must fall under the same censure for none other is prescribed in scripture or recorded by the apostles And so either every stinted Liturgie is part of that mystery of iniquitie which began to work in the apostles dayes or our Liturgy is not Antichristian because it was not prescribed or used in the primitive churches planted by the apostles If it was received by little and little till at last it came to be completely framed then the first beginning of it was no more from Antichrist then was the beginning of other Liturgies Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God and antichristianisme is a filthy and lothsome leprosie which by degrees did infect the pure worship of God If therefore our Liturgie was sowred in after-times with that old leaven it might be pure and free in its first originall Is it for matter taken from the church of Antichrist
other churches we shall not find the number of believers mentioned precisely but without question it was not samall in Antioch of which it is said a great number believing turned unto the Lord as that Barnabas by his preaching added a great multitude unto the Lord and that Paul and Barnabas continued there teaching and preaching with many others the word of the Lord. The like may be said of Corinth Philippi and the seven churches of Asia which are all spoken of as particular churches and societies They stretch the limits of the church of Corinth too farre that extend it to all the Saints in Achaia because the Apostle nameth the rest of Achaia with them as he doth all Saints in all places For he might speak of them as of divers churches in one province as he doth in other places And it is too grosse to think that all in Achaia came to Corinth to be instructed and make their contribution every church using the first day of the week when they assembled to make their collections within themselves Neither can it be well conceived how all Achaia should assemble together for the service of God and the execution of discipline as it is noted of the church of Corinth It will easily be credited that the number of believers was great in Ephesus if we call to mind that when Paul had been there but two yeares all they which dwelt in Asia had heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Graecians those that had used curious arts came and burned their books in the sight of all men which could not be done without great danger unto the church unlesse a great part of the city had believed the art of making shrines and Diana's temple was in danger to be set at nothing and that a great doore and effectuall was opened unto the Apostle at Ephesus And that the multitude of believers was great in all proper settled politicall societies appeareth in this that the Apostles appointed divers overseers elders and deacons to teach and govern the people and take care of the poore which they would not have done nor could the church have born the charge thereof if the number had not been large Two or three making Peters confession cannot be the church in this passage of scripture for the party complained of is one member and the complainant another and he is to take with him one or two if he be not heard before he bring the matter unto the church and how then shall any two or three separated from the world and consenting together in an holy covenant be the church in this place If any two or three consenting in an holy covenant serve to make up this community or church what hindreth but it may consist of women and children onely and so the spirituall authority of teaching exhorting binding loosing remitting reteining sins shall originally executivè agree unto a community of believing women whereof every member is regularly uncapable For the Apostle teacheth plainly that a woman may not speak in the congregation And though he speak particularly of prophesying and teaching yet layeth he down a more generall rule forbidding all such speaking as in which authority is used that is usurped over the man which is done specially in judgement And if a woman may not so much as move a question in the church for instruction how much lesse may she give a voice or rather a reproof for censure And if women be debarred by their sex as from ordinary prophesying so from any other dealing wherein they take authority over the man how can two or three believing women be the church with power ministeriall publickly to bind and loose remit and retein sinnes And if two or three gathered together have the same right and power with two or three hundred or two or three thousand let the society without officers be never so great it cannot be the church that is here meant For those Divines which hold power and authority of binding and loosing to be delivered by Christ to the whole church that is to every particular church collectively because it perteineth to them to deny Christian communion to such wicked persons as adde contumacy to their disobedience and to remit the punishment again upon repentance they generally with one consent maintein that the execution and judiciall exercising of this power perteineth to that company and assembly of officers or governours in every church which the Apostle calleth a presbytery But our Saviour in that text of Scripture speaketh of the execution and exercise of the power of binding and loosing which was never committed to the community of the faithfull without officers If the joynt consent of orthodox Divines move not let it be considered that the exercise of ecclesiasticall censures externall and authoritative was never committed to the community of the faithfull without officers never exercised by the faithfull in any age of the Christian church Let such as plead for this power bring forth either commission for it or precedent of it if they be able The externall and authoritative power of binding and loosing as the greatest power in the church doth comprehend under it all matters subordinate and of the same nature power to preach the word autoritatively and to admit unto or put from the sacraments but the exercise of this inferiour power was never committed to a Christian society or church without officers And if we will not make one text of scripture contrary to another we cannot think the exercise of that power is here given to the community of the faithfull few or many without officers which in all other places is given to the governours never to the faithfull without guides By the church the whole multitude of believers whether with officers or without cannot be understood For that power agreeth not to the whole body in actu primo or in esse as they speak whereof many particular members regularly are not capable as the faculty of speaking or seeing should not first belong to man as the principium Quod if the whole in all parts were not capable of that power But the power of binding or loosing cannot regularly agree to many particular members of that community sc women and children And if women and children though believers be here excluded the word church must not be taken in the largest and most ordinary signification in the new Testament for so it comprehendeth all believers disciples faithfull linked in society If the authority of binding or loosing pertein to the whole church in actu primo sive in esse and to the Presbytery alone in actu secundo sive in operari as the act of speaking perteineth to a man as the principium Quod but to the tongue alone as the principium Quo yet the church cannot be taken for the whole community for our Saviour
ordinary reading of the Law in the assemblies upon the Sabbath is not commanded by Moses either to the priests or Levites no mention is found of any such practice for a long time together We find not for a long time that the Jews had any synagogues for the ordinary assembling of the people and the Law could not be read in their synagogues untill they were built Will our brethren hence conclude either that the scriptures were not read in the assemblies or that it was a devise of man to reade them in their synagogues It is not good to lay grounds for such conclusions If M r Ainsworths testimony be of any value then mark what he testifieth from the famous Jew Maimonie in Misneh treatise of prayer That the church of the Jews had no stinted Liturgie Annot. on Deut. 6. 13. Our wise men have said saith Maim What service is this with the heart It is prayer And there is no number of prayers by the Law neither is there any set form of this by the Law c. If M r Ainsworth be not crosse to himself he cannot deny the use of a stinted form amongst the Jews in the celebration of the passeover of a stinted form free and voluntary not necessary as prescribed of God And that which is here cited out of Maimonie is no way repugnant thereunto For he speaketh not of the passeover or any observations in the celebration thereof but of prayer and that private by one alone and not publick in the assembly or congregation Now the Jews might well use a stinted form in the celebration of the passeover when yet by the law there was no number set nor form prescribed for private prayer These two may well agree After long search no copy can be found of any stinted Liturgie in use among the Jews till they ceased to be the church of God which is a poore and weak proof of the lawfulnesse of a stinted Liturgie amongst Christians It followeth not that they never had or used a set form because it is not to be found at this day For many monuments of antiquity are perished Again though forms which now are extant were not entire as now they be untill they ceased to be a church yet many things conteined in them might be in use before So it is in the counterfeit Liturgies which goe under the name of James Mark Basil and Chrysostom they contein many things which shew the whole composure to be late in comparison whereas divers things in them mentioned were of more ancient use in the church of God And if this do not please though there never was any stinted Liturgie or form of prayer to be used in all their synagogues and assemblies yet that is no reason to question the truth of that which the learned have observed touching the stinted form used in the celebration of the passeover and the probabilities at least they bring to shew that our Saviour Christ approved the same which is all that is affirmed in the argument and maketh more for the lawfulnesse of a stinted form of Liturgie then any thing that hath been objected against it As for the reformed churches we are not to consider what they do but what they ought to do It is most true but we must consider wisely and not censure unadvisedly The churches of God are companies of men called out of this world in part onely inlightned subject to errour they have erred they may erre their sole testimony cannot be the ground of divine faith and assurance Neverthelesse the constant judgement of the churches of God for many ages in a matter of this nature in the times of reformation when clouds and darknesse are expelled when the sunne is risen and great light given to the scriptures by the benefit of languages translations and commentaries I say the judgement of the churches at these times and in a matter of this nature is not lightly to be regarded A man should try and examine his grounds and reasons and mistrust himself rather then so many wise learned and godly sweetly consenting in a matter of this nature unlesse his evidence be very good He had need be well advised before he charge them to maintein a worship not allowed an idole-prayer for the spirituall worship of God a strange form of prayer which was never approved whereat a Christian may not safely be present against which he is bound to witnesse Be it that the churches do erre herein yet I hope they be not obstinate and such as will not give consent to the truth when it is shewed and manifested How cometh it then to passe that none of them hitherto have subscribed to their opinion and practice Either their arguments are not sufficient to convince and then their Separation is unjust or they generally want eyes to see the light for they will not say they want conscience to acknowledge what they cannot but see and then in meeknesse they are to be born withall if upon well tried grounds a man be assured that they all and not he himself is in the errour The testimony of the church then is not infallible because it may erre and hath erred and some members of it at this day do erre in the particular differences that be amongst them but yet the constant testimony of the whole church in the times of light and reformation is of great weight otherwise the Apostles would never alledge the practice and consent of churches to confirm the faithfull and stop the mouthes of the contentious We must look to the primitive churches planted by the apostles who are patterns to them and us But the apostolick churches for many yeares had no such Liturgie devised or imposed And therefore it is no ordinance of Christ because the churches may perfectly and entirely worship God without it with all the parts of holy and spirituall worship We freely confesse it to be no ordinance of Christ by speciall institution nor part of his worship It sufficeth that it is allowable in the worship and consonant to the generall rules given in scripture but not of absolute necessitie Whether any stinted forms of prayer were in use in the apostolick churches is more then can be affirmed certainly or denyed That the apostles prescribed none as necessary that is easily beleeved because no mention of it That none was in use our Divines will neither peremptorily affirm nor deny But if that be granted it is no prejudice to a stinted Liturgy nor to the churches apostolick who are to be our patterns For it is more then probable that many assemblies had not the scriptures read in a known tongue at their first planting it is more then can be shewed by precedent or example that they were read in any Christian congregation Some churches converted by the preaching of the Gospel had neither books nor letters It may be others received the book of