healing and purifying and sanctifying nature more particularly it hath these two properties 1. To kill consume and destroy Sin both in Fruit and Root Stock and Branch 2. To beget Righteousness and Holiness which comprehends all the Fruits of the Spirit such as Love Meekness Temperance Patience Humility Joy Peace Hope and Confidence c. Q. How is the Grace or Gift of God conveyed unto Men at first and how is it received A. As a small thing even as a Seed the least of all Seeds Q. And how is it multiplied and encreased in Mens Hearts A. By its growth in them for if it doth not grow in them it doth not multiply but remaineth as dead and barren as unto them though living in its own nature Q. How doth it grow in Men. A. By getting root in the Hearts even as a grain of Corn by getting root in the Earth Q. How doth it get root A. It hath a Native Vertue and Influence in it whereby it taketh root in the Heart naturally if Men do not resist it and tho the Ground where it seeketh to take Root be foul and unfit yet it hath a cleansing and fitting Vertue in it to prepare the Ground and make it good and fit but it requireth Mans consent and concurrence which it acts and God in it and with it draweth and moveth effectually the Heart of Man unto Q. But may these drawings and movings be commonly resisted A. Yea they may and so the work of Man's Salvation may be hindered by Man himself and that both in the beginning or when begun in its progress Q. Doth God teach Men all things necessary unto Faith and Godliness by this Principle A. Yea as he is faithfully and chastly waited upon believed and followed Q. But hath he not his order in teaching or doth he teach all at once A. He hath his order and doth not teach all at once but line upon line here a little and there a little according as a Man can bear through the gravity of his Principle in them Q. What are the first things he teacheth in and by this Principle A. To deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts to Live Soberly and Righteously to Live Godly And when they have ascended by those degrees he bringeth them into his Holy Mountain City House Kingdom oud Paradise where he giveth them to enjoy of these Pleasures and Delights that because of the Sweetness Beauty and Glory of them are beyond all utterance or thoughts of Man's Heart Q. What are the first beginnings of Gods Work in the Heart after convincement or enlightening the Understanding A. Faith and Repentance Q. What is Faith A. It is a cleaving of the Soul and Heart of Man unto God and Christ according to the inward Revelation of his Divine Power Mercy and Goodness in the shinings of his own Divine Light Life and Spirit within him Q. Is then the object of Faith God and Christ as inwardly revealed A. Yea. Q. What Faith then have they who say Inward and Immediate Revelation is not the common priviledge of Men nay not of the Saints in these daies A. They have not the true Faith which is the faith of Gods Elect that worketh by love and purifieth the Heart and is fruitful of good works but their Faith is but a Dream and Imagination which as it findetn them in their Sins so it leaveth them to live and die in them Q. What is Repentance A. It is a change of the Mind and of all the Powers of the Soul and its affections from Sin and Unrighteousness unto Holiness and Righteousness so that whereas it loved desired and rejoyced in Sin before and had a distaste of all Righteousness and Holiness and an aversion and alienation therefrom now it hath a distaste of Sin universally and an aversion and alienation from it and a true and intimate love of all Righteousness and Holiness desire after it and joy therein and more abundantly after and in God and Christ whose it is Q. How is this Repentance wrought A. By degrees through the power of God his Life his Love his Judgment his Mercy his Goodness revealed in his own Light by his own Spirit as the Heart is turned thereunto and continueth in a steddy and fixed application unto the same This naturally and gently melteth and thaweth the Heart and breaketh it into pieces yea changeth it from a Heart of Stone into a Heart of Flesh and maketh it naturally to savour and relish the things of God which it hated before and to disrelish and distaste the things of Dishonesty and Unrighteousness which it loved before Q. What Rule or Law hath God given unto Men to Serve Obey and Worship him A. Even the same Divine and Spiritual Principle aforesaid the Word of God that is nigh unto us even in our Mouths and in our Hearts that we may know it believe it and obey it This is the Law or Rule of the New Covenant who walk after this Rule Peace is and shall remain upon them neither is there any Condemnation unto them but Justification and Approbation from henceforth and for ever CONCERNING PRAYER I. Some QUESTIONS answered II. Some REASONS given why all PRAYER in Words whether only conceived in the Heart or uttered and expressed by the Mouth should be by the help of the Holy Spirit helping us to conceive those Words III. Some Objections or seeming Reasons brought for using set Forms of PRAYER read out of a Book as if that reading were PRAYER Answered Also a few Words concerning Singing or Praising God with a Psalm By G. K. Printed in the Year 1687. To the Loving and Friendly Reader SInce It pleased the Lord to give me some knowledg by experience what True Prayer is after that I was turned with many others to his Marvelous Light to believe and walk in it wherein the deep things of God are seen and opened Many true and fresh and living openings have arisen in me concerning Prayer the nature use ends and manner of it and how true and right Prayer is and ought to be acceptably performed how the Spirit of God assists and helps his Servants and Children to Pray how he works not only upon their wills and affections to quicken and excite them and make them fruitful with good and holy desires in the art or exercise of Prayer but also how he works upon the Understanding and all the Intellectual Powers to enlighten them and give to Man a true and real sense and understanding of his wants or of the wants of others for whom he prayeth and also of the Love Mercy Bounty and Compassion of the Lord and the readiness and nearness of his helping hand to supply all his and their wants abundantly When the Inward and Spiritual Eye is opened by the Lord to see the Well of Living Water where the thirsty Soul may drink And also to see the Lords Table that is richly spread where it may eat abundantly and be refreshed and bless and
operations of the Holy Spirit in their own Hearts Know then that we do believe know and witness it to be Truth that when God's Holy Spirit inspireth us immediately and moveth us to Preach or Pray or give Thanks as it did Holy Men of God of old and Holy Women also even Daughters as well as Sons and Maid-servants as well as Men-servants and so doth at this day the said Holy Spirit worketh upon our Understandings and Reasons as we are Men and reasonable Creatures and upon all the powers and abilities of our Souls according to their several capacities and the Graces and Spiritual Gifts we have received from God and all that is in us of parts whether natural or acquired or supernatural and maketh them serviceable to us and active in the work and service of God more or less as he pleaseth And thus when we pray or give thanks in Words as we receive these words from the Lord when the Prayer and Thanksgiving is purely and rightly performed so they also spring up in us from the fruitfulness of understanding and those parts and graces which God hath given us and our Hearts and Souls and Spirits are the Mothers that bring them forth and the good matter and purposes whereof they declare together with the good life vertue and force or energy that is in them or doth accompany them Hence true and right Prayer in Scripture is called A pouring out of the Soul and Heart so that somewhat of the very inward strength vertue and power of the Soul and Heart of man yea of his Spirit or what is most noble and excellent in him goeth forth in words whether of Preaching or Praying or giving of Thanks as he is truly and fervently exercised in the same by the moving and enabling of the Holy Ghost according to which David Psal. 103. 1. stirred up not only his Soul to praise the Lord but all that was within him note to bless his Holy Name Which tender and sensible hearers whose Souls and Hearts God hath quickned and made alive are well sensible of and can and do well distinguish betwixt a dead and a living or a barren and fruitful Ministry whether in Preaching or Prayer Habet enim nescio quid latentis energiae viva vox transmissâ— per aures in animos audientium fortius sonat Which is in English thus The living Voice saith he hath I know not what something of a secret energy or power and being transmitted through the Ears of the Hearers into their Hearts and Minds doth sound the more effectually And if this be true of a natural Speech when it comes from a mans heart and is spoke but with a natural Fervency that it reacheth forcibly the natural Faculties of the Hearers which borrowed speeches or those which come not from the heart but from the bare understanding and memory cannot do How much more is it apparent in words and speeches that are Spiritual which come both from the Heart livingly touched and affected with the sense of the things whereof the words declare and also from the Spirit of the Lord Hence it is said that Christ spoke as one having authority and not as the Scribes and the Apostles Preaching was with power and the Holy Ghost and so no doubt was their Praying Q. Is it any part of Gospel Worship or Prayer to read set forms of Prayer out of a Book whether in private or publick or whether all Vocal Prayer used either in private or publick in Families or large Congregations should not be as the Spirit of God helps the Speakers to conceive and gives them an utterance to bring forth Words of Prayer or Thanks giving we cannot believe nor are we convinced in Conscience A. To read set forms of Prayer out of a Book whether in private or publick and call that reading Prayer is any part of Gospel Worship or true and real Prayer but rather one of the many Inventions and Traditions of Men since the Apostacy and falling away from the true Faith did enter among those called Christians who retained the Name but losed the power and Spirit of the true ancient and primitive Christians For surely if it had been any part of Gospel Worship Christ or the Apostles would have mentioned it and the Scripture would have born record of it as they do of all the parts of Gospel Worship and true Christian Religion And if it had been the Will of God that such a way of Worship should have been used in the true Church as a common Liturgy or set Form of Prayers it would have been used in the Apostles days for none were so fit to have given forth such forms of Prayers after Christ his Ascension and giving of the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were who were so abundantly replenished with the Holy Spirit But neither the Apostles nor their immediate Successors either made or used any such set Forms of read Prayers Nothing of this kind was known in the Church either in Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his time who lived above Two Hundred Years after Christ for Tertullian telleth plainly the manner how Christians Prayed in his time Ex pertore sue Monitore per Spiritum Sanctum i. e. From the Heart without a Monitor or any thing outwardly to teach them and by the Holy Spirit But Secondly They who plead for using read set Prayers in the Church do acknowledg they were not in use nor practised in the Apostles days nor in the days of their immediate Successors for they grant that in those early and primitive times they who prayed in the Church as the mouth of the whole Congregation were assisted and guided by the Holy Spirit and that their Words both of Prayer and singing Psalms were by immediate Inspiration So that it is as clear as the Noon-day that when these Divine Gifts of Praying and Singing by the Spirit were lost and the Holy Spirit himself the Author and Fountain of those Gifts was in great measure departed from the invention of reading ser Forms of Prayer took place The first Instance that I find of Peoples being put to use a composed or set Form of Prayer made by another was that Form of Prayer which Constantine the great composed and gave to his Soldiers to say but yet they were not to read it but get it by Heart and we must consider that Constantine himself at this time was but a young Christian and the purity of Spiritual Worship began to decline apace even in his daies and most of his Souldiers were Heathens and no Christians so that what they did was no president to us But neither in Constantine's time nor a considerable space thereafter do I find that any made or composed Prayers before-hand were used in the Church It seemeth the Third Council of Carthage about the year after the Birth of Christ 397. did first ordain Set Forms of Prayer in the Church to prevent or hinder mens uttering any thing either ignorantly or rashly
sentences have more than others as that Spirit is felt from whom originally they came And though all the Scripture words did proceed from the Holy Spirit yet some have proceeded from a greater measure of it and more depth of the Divine Wisdom and hold forth somewhat of more Majesty and deep inward sense and mysterie and are commonly accompanied with a greater measure of the Spirit when they are used either in Reading or hearing them Read or in Meditation and may be also used at this day in Prayer as the same Spirit doth move any of his Servants thereunto either in part or in whole But we do not find that even under the Law or at any time before the Lord did limit and confine his People or Servants to such a precise number of Set Forms of Prayer and made unlawful unto them to use any others when they prayed in publick or that any one was ever forbid to whom God had given any spiritual gift of uttering words either of Prayer or of a Psalm or Song ex tempore by the help and moving of the Spirit to make use of it But on the contrary we find that many prayed ex tempore by the inspiration of the Spirit what the Lord did give them or put into their mouthes of words both in private and publick as Solomon's prayer at the Dedication of the Temple also Esdras's Prayer Chap. 9. and the Levites Prayer Nehem. 9. and Daniel's Prayer Dan. 9. and for private Prayers David's Prayers in the Psalms and Asaphs also Moses and Samuel and Habbakkuk their Prayers with many others under the Law are clear instances and before the Law Abraham Isaac and Iacob their Prayers Nor do we find that ever a Book of Prayers containing so many Prayers in number to be said or read in order was ever made in the Church by any of the Prophets as Prayer or as any part of Worship in the Law. For though divers excellent forms of Prayers are recorded in Scripture and put into Books yet they were not appointed by the Lord to be read or used in so many words without adding or diminishing as Prayers But they were read in the Congregation as other parts of Scripture pattly for information and partly to excite the Spirit and gift of Prayer in the Hearers Excepting only some very few short forms as above mentioned which did not hinder or stop the liberty of the Spirit of Prayer to express it self ex tempore in any other words And those few Forms they used as Prayers and Blessings we do not find they read them out of a Book when they prayed them but spoke them from their hearts where they were livingly as it were Writ and Recorded And tho the words of these short Forms were formerly conceived and in that respect were old or ancient yet as they uttered or pronounced them in a fresh and living sense of God's Spirit and power which never waxeth old this gave them alwaies a new luster and put a new Savour of life in them and made them as it were alwaies new to them And thus it is at this day with the Servants of the Lord whom he hath endued with a Spirit of Prayer who when they Pray either in private or in publick do frequently find and feel Scripture words of Prayer formerly conceived and uttered by the Servants of the Lord as Moses David c. to arise in them from a fresh and living sense of the Word of Life to speak them forth in Prayer and this without any limitation of the Spirit of Prayer but coming freely in the liberty of the Spirit and also of Heart Soul and Understanding and the liberty of the Spirit of Prayer as also of the Heart and Understanding of him that Prayeth is manifest in this that it is the free choice of the Spirit what words of Scripture to make use of and to bring into the Remembrance of him that Speaketh who doth not also limit or confine the Man's Understanding only to those Scripture Words but giveth him liberty to make use of any others that freely arise or spring up in him in unity with the life as it is opened in him as a Fountain or Well of Living Water 2. It is Objected That Christ taught his Disciples to Pray in a set Form of Words who even then were endued with a measure of the Spirit Matth. 6. 9. Luke 11. 2. Answ. Though they are endued at that time with a measure of the Spirit yet it was but small in respect of what was to follow And we must remember that as yet the dispensation of the Law remained in force and if Moses prescribed unto the People under the Law some short but of a very excellent composure Forms of Prayer and Blessing without limiting them only to these well might Christ teach his Disciples this short form of Prayer which is of a most excellent and wonderful composure in regard of its plainness and simplicity and yet most comprehensive in respect of the largeness and fulness of matter expressed in so few Words a most worthy Pattern of all our Prayers and of all that we can ask or desire for it is a sum of all the Prayers that ever was or can be made by any of the Servants of God and whatever is lawsul to be prayed for is most easily reducible to some of the Petitions of the said Prayer and though it hath great plainness and simplicity of Words yet great depth of matter and may be compared to Solomon's Temple which had not only the outer Court but the Holy place within it and within the Holy place the most Holy or Holy of Holies For beside the Letter and Words of it which answer to the outer Curt it hath a Holy inward Sense or Understanding which none can reach or come into but who are made a Royal Priest-hood unto God as none were to enter into the Holy place but such as were Priests under the Law. And although many Christians have reached to the inward Sense of the whole Prayer in great part yet who can say he has reached to the full depth of it and most inward Pith or Marrow thereof which is as the Holy of Holies It is a Question if any ever reached into the most inward Sense and Understanding of it but Christ Jesus himself who spoke and uttered it in whom dwelt all fulness and riches of Wisdom and Understanding who is our High Priest made higher than the Heavens and all the Angels that dwell in them But 2. Christ did not limit them only to this Form of Prayer nor did he give them a Book of Forms of Prayer or any other Forms that we read of but this only which therefore was rather to be a Pattern and Example unto them according to which they were to Pray than tye or confine them to the precise number of the Words of it as is clear from Matth. 6. 9. After this manner therefore said he Pray ye
in the Preachings and Prayers of the Lords Servants that stand on Record far surpassing all the Eloquence that either the Masters or Disciples of that artificial Eloquence so much admired in the World ever arrived or ever can arrive at meerly as such And likewise the same Argument may be retorted in respect of using any words at all in Prayer whether extempore or by Set Forms because to speak properly God is not moved by any words and hath need of them who knoweth all oue most secret Thoughts and Desires without words And if it be said that words are used to Men because they have a leisure to excite their affections then I say and variety of words with new matter as the Heart of Man conceiveth them by the help of the Spirit hath the like service and that more effectually as abundant experience doth prove then Set Forms of Prayer read out of a Book especially when the Reading is accounted Prayer whereof we find no instance in Scripture that ever at any time Reading was accounted Prayer though Prayer of the Heart and Affection may and oft doth follow and accompany serious Reading and Hearing 11. They Object That Solomon forbids men to be rash with their mouth or to let their Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God saith he is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few Answ. But he doth not conclude therefore let thy Prayer be in a Set Form of Words For here only he reproveth vain Repetitions and the Pharisaical Spirit which thought to be heard for their much speaking as Christ did also reprove the same And certainly Solomon was far from forbidding all extemporary Prayer in these words Eccles. 5. 2. Which may very well be conceived in few words as well as marry for he used it himself at the Dedication of the Temple as at other times although I shall willingly grant that ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit where the mind of man irreverently rambleth and wandreth into airy Imaginations is here and every where else forbidden in Scripture And wheras some also except against ex tempore Prayer as being monstrous like because of the smalness or shortness of time betwixt the conception and birth of that kind of Prayers however this argument may be used against ex tempore Praying without the Spirit that can have no place against Praying by the Spirit unless such Objectors will also cry out against the ex tempore Prayers made by the Prophets and Apostles of old as being monstrous or Monsters on that account but I hope they will be more sober And tho in some respect the time be very short as perhaps a moment or instant betwixt the conception and birth of Prayer as to the words or expressions yet the Substance and Root of Prayer wherein the very Essence and Life of true Prayer doth chiefly consist is long time conceived in the Soul before its outward Birth or Expression in the Mouth and is a constant abiding thing in the Soul. 12. Many who pretend to pray by the Spirit and have used or do as yet use ex tempore Prayer discover many weaknesses in those Prayers as vain Repetitions impertinent Sayings light and airy Phrases and unsound Matter and Expressions to the causing many People to abhor the Sacrifices rather than to be piously and religiously affected with those Prayers And seeing few if any have a Spiritual Gift of Praying ex tempore with words conceived by the help of the Spirit and that yet publick Prayers in Congregations and Assemblies of People are necessary is it not better to use Set Forms of Prayer in sound Words then to adventure on ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit Answ. As for all these weaknesses which Men have discovered or may discover in ex tempore Praying they reflect as is said upon the Men but not upon the Principle And when most of these Weaknesses have appeared it is in Men who pray without any pretence unto immediate Inspiration of the Spirit or belief that they have it and such Men I confess should lay aside their ex tempore Praying and wait upon the Spirit of God to receive help from him to pray first believing that it is to be received as it is waited for And these also who pretend to pray by the Spirit and yet do nothing so but are meerly guided by their floating and airy Fancies and Imaginations should desist from such a practice and come with silence both outward and inward and in the same wait for the true Spirit of Prayer to help their infirmities whether with Sighs and Groans that cannot be expressed or with distinct and audible expressions But surely these who indeed pray by the Spirit keeping close and chastly to the same throughout from first to last bewray none of these Weaknesses and though they may use Repetitions yet if the Spirit move to use them and that there be any vertue or savour of Life in them they are not vain but profitable and like the warbling Notes repeated Sounds of a skilful Musician in a musical Descant which rendred the method more sweet and pleasing and such serious grave and weighty Repetitions we find oft in the Psalms of David And these also who use Set Forms of Prayer have need that they use not vain Repetitions for some who have heard these Set Forms have been as much disgusted and offended with the many Repetitions they find there as others with those elsewhere Now it may at times happen that a man may be partly assisted and helped by the Holy Spirit to conceive words of Prayer and good and servent Affections and yet through Humane Weakness may discover some frailty in his Prayer who yet is not altogether to be rejected or discouraged But great care ought to be had by all who make mention of the Name of the Lord that they bring forth nothing but that which is pure and without mixture even a pure Offering and Sacrifice unto the Lord who is pure And suppose few or none in many places or Congregations have the Spiritual Gift of praying ex tempore by the Spirit helping them to conceive the words of Prayer yet there is no need of praying by a Set Form for if the Principle and Doctrine of Truth were once received and believed that God giveth his assistance by his Spirit to all who desire it and whom he thinks worthy of it or fit to bestow it on for the edification of others to pray ex tempore with words truly edifying quickening and refreshing as People did but wait a little time in sincerity for such a Divine Gift it would be given to a sufficient number of them and until it be given it is better to pray with affection of Heart though without all words and wait in silence for a further gift and measure of the Spirit then to be rash or hasty to pray without the Spirit either ex tempore or in a Set Form. And to help the weaknesses of many who cannot bear well long or much silence such as are serious and best affected as they find a freedom and liberty in the Lord may read unto the People or unto their Families the Holy Scriptures which was an ancient custom in the Primitive Church but that Reading is not to be used as Prayer or Worship but only as a mean to excite Prayer and good Affections and Defires in them as it pleaseth the Lord to concur and give his Blessing unto the same and also for Information and Doctrine What is there said all along in this Treatise of Praying by the Spirit helping to conceive the words of Prayer is also to be understood of Singing and Praising God with a Psalm and the Reasons and Arguments drawn from Scripture for the one serve equally for the other for all Singing and Praising with a Psalm or Psalms in Gospel times was a Spiritual Gift as is clear in the Church of Corinth when some had a Psalm to utter or express in words and others went along with them in Unity of Spirit making Melody in the Heart though not a◠audible noise pronouncing the same words as some had a Doctrin and some a Revelation some an Interpretation 1 Cor. 14. 26. THE END ☞
to find how the Doctrines and Principles Preached by others did agree or disagree with them as the Spirit of the Lord should give an Understanding and so according to receive or reject them And God in his Infinite Wisdom hath seen fit that the Writings of the ancient Prophets Apostles and Evangelists should only be this publick and universal outward Standard as having some peculiar excellency in them of plainness and briefness and comprehending much matter in few words and writ from a deeper and larger measure of the Divine Wisdom to which no writings or words since uttered are comparable in equality or in the service they were designed for And more might be said as to this matter to show the excellency of the Scriptures above all other writings or words the Scriptures being generally received and believed and that worthily to be pure and infallible Testimonies of Truth without any mixture of humane weakness error or mistake as they were originally writ and continue at this day as to the main and giving sufficient evidence and witness to necessary Truths which we are not bound to believe equally concerning any other writings as being wholly and throughout Infallible and therefore may take leave to question them and accordingly as we find them to agree or disagree with the said publick Standard of the Scriptures Testimony to receive or reject them in part or in whole And admitting or granting that many Testimonies of Good and Holy Men their Preaching Praying and Writing should wholly agree to the Scriptures Testimony and that they have also proceeded from a measure of the same Spirit purely and without all mixture yet they are not to be made equal with that which by the Appointment of God and general consent of Christians is made the publick Standard of Truth As in respect of an outward Testimony for in all Cities and Corporations the publick Standard of Weights and Measures is of greater and more Authority than any others however so just and agreeable to them And this Objection hath no more force or weight against Preaching and Praying by Divine Inspiration now than it had Two or Three Hundred Years after the Birth of Christ when it is generally confessed the gift of Preaching and Praying by the Immediate Inspiration of the Spirit did remain in the Church and yet their words were not held equal to the Scripture in that day And tho we may not add our Words and Testimonies the purest of them to be any part of Scripture yet we dare not be so Presumptuous as to say there never was nor ever shall be more Scripture than what we have at present for it is probable more of equal Authority with what we have hath been but is lost and possibly some judged Apocryphal by one sort may be of equal Authority and value with God and other good men with other parts of Scripture that are acknowledged Neither are all Christians yet agreed upon the number of the Books of Scripture but it sufficeth that so much is generally agreed upon as is sufficient to be a publick Standard And lastly this Objection can be equally retorted upon the makers of it For they do hold That all the Words in their Set Forms of Prayer are either plain express Scripture Words or deduced and deduceable from them by just and necessary consequence of Truth and what is so deduced are the real Commands and of Oracles God as they or at lest as most of them say as in the example of Infant Baptism which they hold to be a command of God consequently a Divine Oracle and yet they confess it is no where expressed in Scripture but only by consequence deduced from it the which notwithstanding is justly denyed by many to be any firm or sure consequence of Scripture And if none of their set Forms of Prayer have come originally no not in the least measure from the Spirit of God in those who Penned them it seemeth a great derogation to those Prayers and to render them of small value with the People therefore such who use this Objection against us should take heed lest they derogate from their own Prayers and so fall under the censure of their own Brethren But perhaps some will acknowledg that the Spirit helped those who Penned these set Forms of Prayer not only by exciting or moving their affections but also by working upon their Understandings and make them fruitful to conceive the matter or words of these Prayers but not Immediately or by an Immediate Divine Inspiration as the Spirit wrought in David and others who preached and prayed by Immediate Inspiration so as to make no use of their judgment and reason to find out the matter or chuse the words they expressed To this I answer that David or any other of the Prophets and Apostles when they were Immediately Inspired to Preach or Pray or Write made no use of their Judgment and Reason or other Faculties and Abilities of their Souls or that the Spirit of God which wrought in them made no use of them but as meer passive Subjects and Recipients is a thing commonly alledged by those men but no where proved either from express Words of Scripture nor from any just and necessary consequence therefrom Yea the contrary is manifest from Scripture that the Spirit of God wrought upon and used the Understanding and Rational Faculties and Abilities of the Prophets and Apostles not as meer passive Instruments alwaies or most frequently but made them fruitful to work and co-operate with him as Paul who Preached and Prayed by Immediate Inspiration as they do confess said That he had laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles which was not a meer bodily labouring but a travelling or labouring in Spirit more especially wherein his Understanding and rational Faculties were concerned as well as his Will and Affections which is also clearly implied in his following words Yet not I but the Grace of God with me So that it was not he alone nor the Grace alone but the Grace of God co-working with him that caused this earnest and servent labouring in Paul's Soul. Nor is there any more reason to say that the Understandings and Reasons of the Prophets and Apostles when they spoke by Immediate Revelation were wholly passive than to say their Wills and Affections were wholly passive or their Mouths and Tongues when they spoke And the diversity of Stile in the Pen-men of the Scriptures which varieth not only according to the natural gifts and parts wherewith they were more or less endued but also according to their Education and Acquired Parts doth sufficiently show they were not altogether passive The stiles and manner of expression used by Isaiah Paul and Luke clearly show their Education differing from the homely stile of Amos a Country-man who said He was no Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet Paul said he could Pray not only with the Spirit but with the Understanding meaning certainly that his Understanding might
be active and fruitful both to himself and others also It 's true the same Paul speaketh of a case wherein the Spirit Prayeth but the Understanding is unfruitful as it happened at times when a man was so inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit that he spake in an unknown Tongue as appeareth from 1 Cor. 14. 13. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown Tongue pray that he may interpret And in this case it is like that as the Soul's Understanding was unfruitful so it was unactive and was used only by the Spirit as a passive Instrument like a Pen in the Hand of a ready Writer As when the outward Ear of a man receiveth the Voice of a strange Language which he doth not understand There are other cases also wherein the Understanding and Rational Faculties of man may be laid aside and not used by the Spirit of God when he Immediately Inspireth him as when the highest and most noble Faculty of a Man's Soul or Mind is excited and wholly imployed and exercised by the Spirit which by some is called the Spirit of the Mind by others the Visual or Intentive Faculty of the Soul which seeth God as he is pleased to reveal himself and whereby a man hath a sense or perception of Divine or Spiritual things without any use or exercise of his Understanding Reason or Imagination as in a Spiritual Rapture and extasie But for most part the Understanding and Reason was used and imployed yea and the Memory also by the Prophets and Apostles so as to remember what they had read or heard and seasonably to apply it to the present occasion when they spoke or writ by Immediate Revelation or Inspiration For Immediate Revelation or Inspiration doth not exclude the use of means whether inward or outward it only implyeth a most near and close or intimate conjunction and union of the Spirits Operation with the Soul in the use of means as well as when they are not so used And Solomon who is generally acknowledged to have writ both the Books of the Ecclesiastes and Proverbs by Divine Immediate Inspiration and Revelation yet he saith Eccles. 12. 10. He sought to find out acceptable words c. So that the Spirit of God made use of that Faculty or Ability of his Soul which is called by Logicians Invention as well as his Judgment not that he had any trouble or difficulty to find out those acceptable words but the Spirit making his Understanding Fruitful with plenty of matter and seasonable and suitable Words he freely and without any trouble or disquiet of his mind used such acceptable words 6. It is Objected That even they who pray ex empore by the Spirit in a Congregation of People do stint or limit the Spirit in the Hearers and their Understandings and Attensions to consider what they who speak say no less than if they heard a Set Form of Prayer read unto them Answ. This is altogether denyed for first the Spirit of God in one can never be thought to stint the same Spirit or limit the operation thereof in another or many because the Spirit is the same in both and doth ever accord and agree with it self in all its operations and what it moveth the Speaker to Speak it moveth and inclineth the Hearers to consider and where true Unity is witnessed with one inward voice and cry of their Hearts they speak the same things unto God their Hearts at every Sentence saying Amen to what they feel and perceive to come from the Spirit of God in them who speak Nor doth it hinder the understanding and attention of the Hearers in being exercised towards the Spirit 's workings and openings in themselves For many yea and most times what the Spirit speaks through one doth excite the understandings of the Hearers into more faithfulness so that they have more opened and revealed unto them by the Spirit than what the Speakers words did import as oft also the like falleth out in Discoursing upon a natural subject where the words do signifie more to some Hearer than they do to the Speaker himself exciting clearer and fuller notions or ideas of Truth in him And thus even natural arts have been perfected when the first Inventers had but some small beginnings others by those beginnings have been excited to find out more perfect things as the bringing of the first words of a Sentence to a man's Memory which he hath forgot doth oft excite his Memory to remember the whole Sentence Nor is the Mind of Man so strait or narrow but it can well enough attend to what another Man sayeth in Preaching or Prayer and also to what God inwardly doth suggest or reveal unto him And the liberty of the Hearers understandings and Spirits is manifest in this also that after one has Prayed in words if the same Spirit reveal any thing to be spoken in Preaching or Prayer by any of the Hearers he is free to do it without giving any offence which was the order prescribed by Paul to the Church of Corinth 7. It is Objected That set Forms of Prayer are most for the edifications of the People who by often hearing of the same Prayer can commit it to Memory and so it passeth to the Understanding and remaineth with them whereas extemporary Prayers pass away for most part as a Sound and are little remembred Answ. This also is altogether denyed viz. That set Forms of Prayer are most for the edification of the People for admitting or supposing that the Hearers commonly by oft hearing these set Forms had them all perfect in their Memory yet it will not follow that they have a true understanding of them for men may and do remember many things which they do not understand But again either these set Forms of Prayer are few or many if few they cannot give a large understanding to the People if many they cannot be well remembred by them and if they were as many as would fill many Volumns they cannot give so great occasion to edifie and inform the understanding as these Prayers which proceed ex tempore by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Holy men which must needs be many more and containing much more matter than the greatest Book of ever so many set Forms of Prayer can For on this account it is as I reckon why men are not tyed to set Forms of Preaching but are allowed freely to exercise their gift because that is more edifying to the People than set Forms to Preach by would be unto them And the same reason is as good concerning Praying as Preaching And tho words of ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit pass away as an empty transient sound yet by and with the help of the Spirit both in speakers and hearers they take impression both upon the understanding and memory of People who are made tender and sensible And tho all or most of the words spoke be not remembred yet if they have