for Non-subscription to the Book and Ceremonies and to prosecute divers private Christians for Non-observation or else their opposition to the Ceremonies therein contained Insomuch that many like the children of faithfull Abraham forsook their owne country and fathers house and went into a strange Land viz. into America to the end they might have their consciences freed from these yoaks and burdens as they thought intolerable Besides in divers places the Ministers were forbidden to exercise their own gift of Prayer and others did voluntarily suffer parts and gifts to dry up for want of using because they had this book at hand in all their administrations Further it was observed many of the people did so idolize it that they judged no other way of worshipping God like it or to be allowed by men and accepted by God but that To prevent these or such like mischiefs and inconveniencies for the future as also it may be for that some judged it not necessary if tolerable that all men should be bound to use Crutches because some could not well goe without them and also that they might bring the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland to the neerest conjunction and uniformity in Religion particularly in a Directory for worship catechizing according to their Covenant newly entred into with the Kingdome of Scotland lately set all on a flame with a service-Service-book which in some things was more though in others lesse liable to exception than the English Liturgy sent thither from hence by the Archbishop of Canterbury I say for these or the like reasons the Assembly advised and the Parliament which the King had confirmed by Act thought good by an Ordinance to lay aside wholly the common-prayer-Common-prayer-book judging it as lawful to doe it as was for Hezekiah to break in pieces the Brazen Serpent made by Moses when once abused to Idolatry The Parliament having thus removed the Booke by an Ordinance or two who were we that we should resist God and them and hazard our own and the Kingdomes and Churches peace to maintain a Form when as without charity all Prayers whether with or without a Form or Book are lost If it shall be further objected that the service-Service-book was setled by an Act and removed or abolished by an Ordinance To this all I think good to answer here at present is this That I have heard that an Ordinance of Parliament was of validity to suspend an Act And that that Ordinance of Parliament hath not been as yet suspended nor the Act for the Liturgy hitherto revived by any other Act. Let this suffice to justifie our non-using of the English Liturgy III. I come now to my last Observation that is to justifie our continued use of the Lords Prayer And here let me minde you that the same reverend godly and learned Assembly which judged it expedient to take away the Common-prayer did yet recommend the Lords prayer to be used in the prayers of the Church because it is take their owne words in the Directory Not onely a pattern of Prayer but it selfe a most comprehensive Prayer As the same measure may be a standard to frame and try other measures by and may besides be used to measure withall So may this Prayer of our Lord be used both as a Pattern of prayer to frame our prayers by as a Standard to examine them by and as a Prayer it selfe also And truly if our Saviour had meant this Prayer onely for a pattern and that it should be unlawful to uss it as a Prayer I believe him so plain and so good a speaker for never man spake like him and in his mouth was found no guile that he would never have answered such a request Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples in such expresse language When ye pray say Our Father c. without some caution limitation or restriction to prevent mistakes For had it been possible that when our Lord said When ye pray say Our Father c. that his sense and meaning should be when ye pray ye must not say Our Father c. ye must not say these words at any time or in any case but onely pray alwaies after this patterne we may suppose the holy Ghost would have added some explanation or interpretation as in other cases viz. John 7.38 39. and John 2.20 21. the rather considering there is no room here as in other places for a figurative sense and that it is the office of the holy Ghost to lead us into all truth and so to preserve us from error and that the words are so plaine a forme of Prayer and so plain for the using of them so that plainer needed not upon supposition that it was the minde of Christ that these words should be used as a Prayer Let us reason the matter a little what can be said against using this Prayer of Christ now which might not have been objected or pretended by Aaron and his Sons for their not using the forme of blessing prescribed of old Numb 6.23 24. Yea how shall we now justifie our practice of blessing or praying for a blessing in the words of the Apostle Paul in the close of our Sermons if it be utterly unlawfull to pray unto God in the words of our Lord Jesus in the beginning of our Sermons What is the Disciple come to be above his Master and the Servant above his Lord Again how can we think that God that hears our prayers who have not the Spirit in such a measure as the Apostles had should not regard his Sons prayer should therefore not heare his childrens prayers because presented unto him in his owne and onely Son's words Yea will God the Father heare our prayers indited by the holy Spirit not hear us when we pray that which his Son made put in our hands hearts And did not the same holy Spirit that indited our prayers indite the prayer of Christ too and do not we who have the Spirit by measure receive of Christs fulnesse as all other graces so also the spirit of Grace and Supplication I dare say that the holy Ghost is not therefore out of love out of conceit with his own conceptions because they are not new Must all our prayers necessarily be put up in our Saviours name if they finde acceptance if they be heard and answered and must they in no wise at no time in any case be sent up in his owne words or will Jesus Christ the great Favourite and Master of Requests in heaven refuse to present our Petitions because of his own drawing or inditing Must we alway when we pray pray after this manner and must we never when we pray say Our Father c If one be Scripture is not the other also yea doubtlesse both and in both we have the minde of Christ for he that said that said this also Must we alway keep to Christs sense and meaning and yet never use his words but our
owne Surely we cannot have better matter better method better words than is contained in Christs owne Prayer Let us therefore not so requite the kindness of Christ in teaching us a form of prayer and his condescention in allowing us to pray after this pattern and giving us his spirit to help us in prayer as wholly to lay aside the very words of Christ but as we judge it lawful to praise God in the words of David so let us not scruple the praying unto God in the words of the Messiah the Son of David yea Davids Lord. Let us thus honour our Lord and Master as by reading his Word so by praying his Prayer I shall now come to endeavour to remove some of those rubs or stumbling-blocks I mean Objections which already lye or possibly may be cast in the way to hinder this Doctrine from having a cleare passage amongst us Obj. If Christs meaning was that we should say these words when we pray then we must alway say these words and no other words when we pray and so if this text make the saying of this Prayer lawfull it makes all other Prayers besides this unlawfull Answ It doth not follow that if we may say these words then we may say no other or that we must necessarily rehearse these very words as oft as we goe to prayer I le instance in two parallel texts Our Saviour saith Mat. 6.6 But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy doore pray c. It doth not hence follow that we must never pray but privately or privately but in our closet or with our doores shut and yet we may pray in our closets and with our doores shut Our Saviour prayed oft in the Mount of Olives Again our Saviour saith Luke 12.13 When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbours lest they also bid thee again and a recompence be made thee But when thou makest a feast call the poore the maimed the blind From hence it follows that we may call the poore the blind the halt the maimed when we make a feast and yet from hence it doth not follow that we must never make a feast but they must be called or none else but such And so because our Lord saith when ye pray say Our Father c. I gather I think rationally that we may say these words and yet conceive it unreasonable that then we may say no other or that we must say these words as often as we pray The King was bound to read in the book of the Law all the daies of his life and yet he might and was to do other things besides read in the book of the Law and might without sin read in other books daily besides the book of the Law Affirmative precepts bind semper but not ad semper and so though we should say it was a commandement of Christ When ye pray say c. as it looks more like a Precept Injunction or command than a Prohibition yet it followes not that we must pray no other prayer or never pray but that we must adde this Prayer also I say we may pray saying these very words because Christ saith When ye pray say And I say we may pray in other words after this pattern or model because I read Mat. 6.9 After this manner pray ye Our Father c. And because I read that the Apostles prayed other prayers Acts 4.24 25. and in many other Scriptures If any say But we never read that the Apostles used this Prayer at all To this I return answer That though we read not that they ever did use this Prayer yet we no where read in Scripture that they did not and we have the authority of the Ancients that they did use it and particularly in the consecration of the elements in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Hieron adversus Pelag. Greg l. 7 â—p 63. Again it followes not because the Scripture is silent as to the Apostles practise whether they used or not used the Lords Prayer that therefore they did not use it at all To plough a little as to the substance of what I say with Monsier de Spaign's Heifer in answer to this Objection We never read that the Apostles baptized any in the name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost shall we therefore believe they did not or that is was unlawfull for them to doe so Because our Saviour saith Goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and the holy Ghost I conclude that they might lawfully and so may we now use that very form of words in Baptisme notwithstanding that I read not in the holy Scriptures of any baptised in that form but the Scriptures speak expresly of some who were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus either by some of Johns Disciples or by the Apostle Paul Acts 19.5 but it no where records the baptisme of any expresly in the other forme Now because of this practise of the Church I collect they sinned not who baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus and because of Christs command Mat. 28. latter end I believe it very lawfull to baptize in the name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost and that it is now lawfull and I think most expedient at least to say no more to baptize now in this same form of The Father the Son and the holy Ghost And so in the present case although I read not in Scripture that the Disciples did use the Lords Prayer for a Prayer yet it seemes very strange if they never should our Saviour speaking so expresly When ye pray say Our Father c. yet I judge it lawfull for them and so for us to use it because of this text yea I will adde that put the case those who had the extraordinary miraculous assistance of the holy Ghost in praying did not actually use this very forme yet I think it lawfull and expedient for us to use it who have necessarily no such infallible assistance and guidance in our prayers Obj. But the Evangelist Matthew chap. 6.16 and this Evangelist Luke here set down the Lords Prayer with some difference In the one it is Forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us in the other it is Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors In the one For thine is the Kingdome the Power and the Glory for ever is added to the Petitions in the other it is omitted from hence it may be gathered that we are not to use the very words for if so which forme should we follow Ans I answer with Mr. de Spaign the Evangelists and the Apostle Paul relate Christs words in the celebration of the Lords Supper diversly may we not therefore use the words of any of them yes surely of any one of them
A Treatise CONCERNING PRAYER Containing particularly AN APOLOGY For the use of the LORDS PRAYER By THOMAS HODGES B.D. Rector of the Church of Souldern LONDON Printed by John Grismond 1656. TO The very much Honoured John Crew Esq SIR YOu may perhaps wonder that the ensuing Treatise being for the maine the substance of a Sermon lately preached in your eares at Brackley should now be presented to the eye of the world And again that it should come forth after this manner fronted with your name And the rather at both because you will finde your selfe surprised without the least fore knowledge or fore-thought of either My answer for the first of these shall be this That it containes an Apology for the use of the Lords Prayer and consequently a justification of my own and many of my deare Brethrens practise conformable to the Directory for publique Prayer compiled by the Reverend Fathers of the late Assembly and authoriZed to be observed by Ordinance of Parliament whereof you were a Member I would not have it said No Leiturgie no Lords Prayer that since the Church of England hath laid aside the former as unnecessary or inconvenient she hath cast out the latter as unlawfull And my desires and endeavours are that as in the Marian times times of Idolatry superstition some were martyr'd upon occasion of their saying the Lords Prayer in English now in these dayes of reformation the Lords Prayer it selfe may not be made a Martyr and they suffer in their names and reputations that dare to use or rehearse it at all as a Prayer Now as for the present addresse to you give me leave Sir to say for say it I must that when I consider how many yeares you have been an eminent Patron of Preaching and Prayers in these parts of the Nation and withall that you were an Auditor of the Sermon that your own house is an house of prayer that God hath remarkably endued and blessed you with an understanding Head an honest Heart a fixed and stable Soule and so qualified you to be a fit judge of Truth I must confesse looking about I doe no where see such another excellent Theophilus under whose name and patronage I may with so much reason and boldness commit the following Treatise to the Presse I am not without some hope that it may meet with the better entertainment in the world because it comes forth with the priviledge of your name so that if the obscurity of the Author should hazard to darken the present Truth the lustre of your name may be a meanes to scatter that cloud and to cleare up that truth to the otherwise blere-ey'd i. e. prejudic'd Reader And now Sir not despairing of your pardon for ingaging you thus far let me beg your patience a little farther viz. whilst by way of supplement to the Sermon I premise in this Epistle a few words concerning this six finger'd Monster of errour about the Doctrine of Prayer herein handled Sir there are three paire of Errours if I may so speak contrary to this Truth and each paire consisting of two extreames the one contrary to the other The first pair this That we ought to do nothing at all but pray and that we ought not to pray at all the first an error of some in the Primitive times the latter a fancy of these last daies The second paire this That 't is absolutely necessary alwaies when we pray to use a form and that 't is utterly unlawfull at any time when we pray to pray with or by a form the former the opinion of some chiefly raised by Prelacy when at its height the latter originally the conceit of others cast down and kept under by the Hierarchy The third paire this That the often bare repetition of the Lords Prayer merits pardon of sin and heaven and that the once rehearsing it for a Prayer is a sin and so deserves Hell the former the tenet of some Papists and fancy of ignorant Protestants the latter the error of some reall enemies both to Popery and Formality Sir these are the several errors to the followers and patrons of which may I have your leave and patronage to speak a few words To the poore Euchite if any such there be in these daies who will doe nothing else but pray I say and that justly Wherefore is this losse who hath required these things at your hands Go to Paradise and there learn of Adam by Gods own direction and command to keep and dresse the Garden as well as to sanctifie or keep holy the Sabbath day As for those who are guilty of the second error viz. who will not pray at all I have preached to them the following Sermon here shall tell them I pray for them because they pray not for themselves and that I think it more necessary to write The Lord have mercy on their doores in whose houses Prayer is not than where the Plague is Those of the third rank who will allow of no prayer except with or by a form supposing they will not decline the judgement and practise of the Ancients without weighty reasons I referre to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Apol. 2. Justin Martyr and Tertullian and if their testimony will not amount to this that it was their judgement Sine monitore quia de pectore oramus Tert. Apol. cap. 30. and the practise of Christians in their time to pray according to their ability without any Booke or Prompter and so without any set form yet let them shew us how to construe their sayings so as to reconcile them to their opinion And again I beg of them to heare King James who in his advice to Prince Henry counsels him to pray as his heart moves him pro re natâ and not bee as the ignorant ones who pray nothing but out of a book I would desire men of this perswasion to consider that they make the way to the throne of grace onely in a beaten path or road and narrower than God and the holy Scriptures have made it and that probably this their inordinate Zeale for set Formes and their intemperate heat against conceived Prayers gave the first occasion of throwing out all Liturgies out of the Church When they who are allowed crutches or staves to help their weaknesse make use of them to fight withall and to break the heads of those who offer to goe without them then 't is thought no injustice or imprudence to take them away When once the Liturgie that Sheepherds staff would pretend to be like that rod of Aaron when it devoured the rods of the Egyptian Magitians that is would become a Serpent and devour all other prayers in the Church as if they had not been the product of the holy Spirit but a delusion then it was thought high time to remove it Those in the fourth place who decry all forms as utterly unlawfull are reasoned withall in the following Discourse It shall suffice