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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	form_n	prayer_n	prescribe_v	2,556	5	9.9248	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54945	A discourse of prayer wherein this great duty is stated, so as to oppose some principles and practices of Papists and fanaticks; as they are contrary to the publick forms of the Church of England, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament. By Thomas Pittis, D.D. one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. Wherefore, that way and profession in religion, which gives the best directions for it, (viz. prayer) with the most effectual motives to it, and most aboundeth in its observance, hath therein the advantage of all others. Dr. Owen in his preface to his late discourse of the work of the Holy SPirit in prayer, &c.	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2314; ESTC R220541	149,431	404

as may consist with perspicuity how can it be possible that the quickest men subject to many infirmities in their bodies that must and will many times cloud their minds should upon a sudden without a previous and exact consideration word their own and the common desires of other men according to the order and method and importance of things unless they have before hand invented digested and reduced both their matter and expressions into a well studied and set form of prayer He that adventures to pray extempore in a publick audience is so selfish in the matter of his petitions and oftentimes so ridiculous in the expressions that it is impossible all should be able to say Amen to several things petitioned for if they at all use their understandings and do not implicitly joyn upon the authority of the gifted person But you will find more of this in a place of this Discourse more particularly reserved for it I do not deny but matter and words may present themselves on a sudden for private and more brief ejaculations or intermix themselves in our single devotions beyond the form which we may generally use either through the great enlargement of our minds and affections or upon sudden and unexpected necessities or by recollecting in our memories something that was either before omitted or our form does not directly enough or in particulars express But in publick where petitions ought to be so general that all present may say Amen and by this signifie their assent and wishes it is not only convenient but necessary too that men should have some time to judge and be acquainted with what is delivered in their behalf before they give their assent to it otherwise they pray not with judgement and understanding which ought to go before and lead their affections and not permit the passions to sally forth without taking notice of it in the way Now I cannot see how this can possibly be done without a form which those that joyn in may be acquainted with However methink to us Christians there are several arguments to be taken from universal pratice in former ages and reasons also from the holy Scriptures which are sufficient to determine us in this affair and to recommend this method of addressing our selves to Almighty God First The antiquity of publick forms of prayers and benedictions wherein also prayer is included is so evident that both Jews and Christians have agreed in this notwithstanding the introduction of the one religion superseded and evacuated the other Under the Law we find the prescription of a form by God himself wherewith the Priests were to bless the people by invocating and wishing that Gods blessing might descend upon them and they were the authoritative instruments in this method to convey it to them Numb 6. 22 23 c. Nay there is a form of prayer made and prescribed by the same God for those to rehearse who had payed their tythe every third year as any one may see both the form and the command to use it Deut. 26. from v. 12. onward What are the Books of the Psalms of David but a form of Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings which were used in the worship of God in the Temple delivered to the Levites in the several Quires according to the Ordinance of the King of Israel When they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Ezra 3.10 11. Nay and what seems to me matter of wonder these very Psalms translated into English Metre are yet sung in those dissenting Congregations who refuse otherwise to pray to God by a form But to leave the form prescribed to the Jews and accordingly practised because according to some men of quick invention and volubility of language they were a carnal and an heavy people to be led on in a dull and formal way Yet unless the opposers of forms of prayer will be too nimble for the Apostles themselves and account them dull and carnal we shall find forms in the New Testament not only composed but injoyned too None surely can be unacquainted that our Saviour taught his Disciples to pray and gave them a form not only for imitation but for use men do not I hope so learn Christ 'T is true S. Matthew delivers the command After this manner therefore pay ye Mat. 6.9 yet S. Luke recording the same prayer when in another year and on another occasion our Saviour delivered it gives us the account of our Lords prescription in these words When ye pray say Our Father c. Luke 11.1 Yet this difference can only infer these two things 1. That in all our composures of prayer in which we enlarge the words of our petitions suitable to the enlargement of our minds we should have regard and bear some proportion to this pattern which Christ himself has given for our direction And 2. That we should use also the words themselves in which our Saviour has taught us to pray supplying the imperfections of our own invention by the fulness of that prayer which he has prescribed for all true Christians to use And such a method we find followed by the Church till the vanity of some men who thought themselves wiser and they may be accounted more fanciful than the aged designed to suit their expressions and tones to captivate the affections and passions of the multitude for ends at first best known to themselves but since with a vengeance declared to others Though in the mean time they offered unto God fancy for devotion and out of their pretended wisdom the sacrifice of fools And I pray God there be no Knavery in it that was also intended to the people Secondly I argue for forms of prayer to be used in publick because the Minister then is the mouth of the congregation and is to be supposed to utter all by their consent and to pray in their names testifying their unity of affection by their consent in prayer And this so prevails with the great God of infinite goodness that if but two shall agree together on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them by the Father which is in heaven Matth. 18.19 Unity of affection and consent in prayer is that which renders our publick devotions so acceptable to God This gives them strength and vertue causes our prayers to ascend as incense and the lifting up of our hands to be as an evening sacrifice Now there cannot in my opinion be this consent and unity of affection in prayer but where there is an uniformity in calling upon God that all let them come whence they will into any publick place of devotion where a congregation is assembled to offer their joynt prayers to God if they are in communion with and frequent the Churches being before acquainted with the service and prayers which all there make to God they may unite themselves immediately to

But notwithstanding all their pretensions to the Spirit of which I shall hint something before I end which advances their rudeness into perfect Blasphemy If praying extempore they are at any time methodical and faultless 't is owing to their good chance and fortune And they have an escape when they have taken no pains at all for it But when David was bartering for the threshing-floor of Araunah and for Oxen also for a burnt Sacrifice nay the very wood to kindle the fire all which he might have been presented with for nothing David refused so Royal a gift And his reason as himself expressed it was because he would not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord his God of that which should cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. But these bold men with whom to our sorrow we have to do confidently present to Almighty God that in which no pains were taken in the composure Only a tatling and talkative Service stuff'd with little besides gibberish and impertinency that others who consider what and to whom they offer it cannot without falshood and irreverence join with them in But the halt and the blind are their common Sacrifices and strong lungs the best Altar on which these oblations are made Yet all this they think to smother when they are kindled into passion and fury in the obscurity of those phrases and length of those sentences in which they pretend to offer their comon supplications unto God And they expect the joint consent of a Congregation to what they never heard of before Nor could they understand when it was uttered For their raptures so muffle up their notions and both are so mix'd with their petitions which they wrap in Clouds and obscure Metaphors that the meaner sort cannot understand them But sigh and groan they know not why And the more considering part that are not blind have just cause to suspect such Religion which the Patrons and promoters endeavour with so much care to secure from a more severe and strict examination All that I admire in it is how they can be dark at noon-day and mount out of sight on a sudden and extempore Unless whatever their pretensions are to quickness of invention they study such unusual expressions designedly to amuse but not to inform the judgements of men As Cotta in Tully speaks of Heraclitus de nat Deor. lib. 3. Quae diceret intelligi noluit That he would not have what he said to be understood But in prayer to God when 't is made vocal men are supposed to declare their wants and petition for relief And this especially when any Community joins in it ought to be managed with an honest plainness without any mysterious riddles or equivocal language or petitions wrap'd up in mourning Metaphors as if they were to be buried amongst the Dead or any other Coptical and Egyptian expressions that are difficult to decipher and much more to be understood For these are things that as well baffle the minds of the simple as too frequently vail the hypocrisie of him that makes the oblation Nay very often amuse those of better understanding so that they are not able with any judgment to say Amen at the close of all Nay it hazards also and too frequently destroys that faith which ought to be earnestly contended for and safety preserved pure and unspotted For it 's as easie and indeed attended with less difficulty to introduce a strange Creed by using this unbounded liberty in prayer as it is by an unstinted latitude in preaching and to insinuate into mens minds either old or new condemned Heresies by a frequent repetition of those things that tend to their promotion or establishment in our prayers to God When the souls of those that join in the devotions are very intent and open to receive what we say with greediness and desire Especially when men are busied in raising their affections to their utmost height There 't is not hard to introduce false Doctrine into the belief of others Which like a false story that by frequent relation comes at last to be received as true Not only by the hearers who are easily imposed on But he that tells it having so often related it forgetting that he once knew it to be false at last thinks it to be really true Nay in prayer where a false point in Religion is misted and wrap'd up in a petition 't is affected and swallowed with the petition And more easily digested than if it were declared in an Homily or Sermon Because in hearing Sermons men imploy their judgments more than their affections But in prayer the affections are usually more busie than their understandings And that it is very common with those extempore men that take upon them to conceive prayer in a Congregation to insinuate Doctrines in their petitions is so manifest to all observing persons who have been present at such meetings that a person of any judgment at all may certainly judge of the opinion of the gifted Brother that prayeth by his Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings to God And then where people are led by the authority or examples of those whom they embrace for their Ministers which in many things the common multitude must and in most points it is notorious in many of our Separatists what they use in their prayers and speeches unto God must needs obtain a greater reputation with them than what is only address'd to men Because they then think their Ministers to be most serious cautious and devout too This therefore was warily and exceedingly well provided against after the extraordinary operations of the Spirit ceased by the Council at Laodicea Can. 18. where the Fathers Assembled injoined their Churches to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Liturgy or form of prayer both Morning and Evening And in the fifty ninth Canon of the same Council it was Ordained that the vulgarly composed Psalms which were the labours of persons who had not sufficient understanding in these things or any Books that were not Canonical should not be sung or read in the Churches Where also for mens satisfaction against the Papists in this matter you may find the Titles or Names of those Books which the Council then received as Canonical And in the Milevitan Council Can. 12. it was Decreed that those Prayers and Offices which were approved by an Assembly or Council should only be used excluding others in all their publick Administrations Lest any thing should either through inconsideration or ignorance be uttered before the people that might contradict the common faith received and continued among them And if the Governours of Churches in those daies were so Prophetical and cautious in their Establishments for the present and transferring the most Holy Christian Religion from their own Age to the succeeding so as nothing might be conveyed to Posterity but what was Orthodox and of Primitive constitution And to obviate that extravagant itch of men which since we have found increasing into a

God they ought to be mindful both of Modesty and Discipline Non passim ventilare preces nostras inconditis vocibus c. Not to brethe out our prayers in insipid words nor throw out our petition which is modestly to be commended unto God with a tumultuous speech because God is not the hearer of the voice but the heart nor is he to be put in mind of any thing by clamours and outcries who sees and understands the thoughts of men And now I have finished this Discourse of Prayer which I both wrote for and preached to the people to whom I have as I ought fairly dedicated it And if others only to exercise their censuring talent shall find fault with it let them in charity honestly mend it or else they may as assuredly they will Turn the Buckles of their Girdles behind them FINIS I desire here to recommend to the Parishes to which the former Discourse is Dedicated a few Collections out of a Book intituled The Vindidication of the Presbyterial Government By the Ministers of the Province of London November the 2. 1649. THey complain that to such a degree of Apostasie some were arrived that they were labouring for an odious Toleration of all abominable Opinions as can shroud themselves under the name of the Christian Religion Pag. 103. And that those errors which were but few in the Prelates time were now many in theirs Their note on Rom. 16.17 Mark them which cause divisions c. is that we are not only required to avoid their Doctrines but their persons For proof of which is quoted 1 Tim. 6. ch 3 4 5. Pag. 104. The Doctrine of a Toleration of all Religions is contrary to Godliness and opens a door to Libertinism and Prophaneness And that all Doctrines are to be avoided that hold forth a strictness above what is written And therefore their advice is that men must be Candidates of a Canonical not an Apocryphal strictness And where God has not a mouth to speak men must not have an ear to hear nor an heart to believe Pag. 105. That Doctrine which crieth up Purity to the ruin of unity is contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel And they conclude with this affirmation That certainly the Government that carrieth in the front of it a Toleration of different Religions and is not sufficient to keep the Body of Christ in unity and purity is not the Government of Christ And again That Doctrine which is contrary to the rule of Faith or any duty required in the ten Commandments or to any petition of the Lords Prayer is not a Doctrine of Christ and therefore to be rejected Pag. 107. Nay they complain that then they were an Hypocritical Nation and the people of Gods wrath because they had been Truce-breakers Self-lovers Traytors false Accusers and all under the specious form of Godliness Nay if any will read over the Book they will by their own confessions prove some of the wickedest people under the Cope of Heaven We are say they Proud Secure Liars Swearers and forswearers Murderers Drunkards Adulterers and Oppressors We have not learned Righteousness but Unrighteousness by all the judgments of God We are worse and worse by all our deliverances We have spilt the blood of Christ in the Sacrament by our unworthy Receiving Nay after all this long Catalogue of sins they tell us that it would be too long to reckon all the particular relative iniquities of the party of Magistrates Ministers Husbands Wives c. And they conclude this with those expressions Isai 1. from the 5th Verse onwards Ah sinful people A people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers c. vid. Pag. 109 c. Let God and other men now judge out of their own mouths For 't is not my business to judge any man But to go on a little more with that Orthodox Doctrine which this Provincial Assembly there exhibited They say farther Pag. 119. That it is the duty of all Christians to enjoy the Ordinances of Christ in Unity and Uniformity as far as it is possible Because the Scripture calls to Unity and Uniformity as well as to Purity and Verity And that not only because it is not impossible in it self but for that God has promised that his Children shall serve him with one heart and with one way and with one shoulder And for this they quote the Prophets among the Jews predicting the glorious flourishing of the Gospel Jer. 32.39 Zeph. 3.9 Zech. 14.9 As also our blessed Saviours prayer That we may all be one as the Father was in him and he in the Father Joh. 17.21 That so from the unity and love of his Disciples the world might believe that God had sent him And therefore this Provincial Assembly concludes That nothing hinders the propagation of the Gospel so much as the divisions and separation of Gospel Professors Nay they farther say That if all men cannot come up in all particulars to the Uniformity of the Church Yet they ought to hold Communion together in what they agree And to prove this they quote the Text which that very worthy and Reverend Person Dr. Stillingfleet the present Dean of St. Pauls Church chose to Preach his most excellent Sermon from before the Lord Major of this Honourable City against which so many pens have been sharpned and blunted too Phil. 3.16 Nevertheless whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Let us mind the same thing Nay they add also that this was the practice of the Primitive Christians Which is the very same thing which the Reverend Dean endeavoured to prove And yet men pretending to the same Principles with these Provincial Divines either as plainly endeavour to deny such things or according to the custom of Pharisees Jesuits attempt to evade them by face or distinction The Lord help me who am a poor simple man when persons of wonderful and miraculous education and learning thus talk in and out Nay farther in the matter of forbearance the Provincial Divines desire only that all things may be tolerated that consist with the fundamentals of Religion the Power of Godliness and with that Peace which Christ has established in his Church But to Preach up or practise that which makes Ruptures in the Body of Christ I use here their own language and to divide Church from Church and to set up Church against Church and to gather Churches out of true Churches and to hold Communion in nothing This say they we think hath no warrant out of the word of God and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and families And not only disturb but in a little time destroy the power of Godliness Purity of Religion Peace of Christians Nay set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism Popery Heresie and all manner of wickedness And therefore this Provincial Assembly of the Ministers of the Province of London concludes Pag. 121. with that description which Dr. Ames gives