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
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
liberty to each other in the Holy Spirit of Truth and growing up together in God's Heavenly Garden as lovely Plants and Flowers each one having their proper Shapes Forms and Fruit all of a sweet and pleasant smell and taste and of a lovely Beauty and all useful and profitable one to another and to the Church of God in general without any envy or grudging but rejoycing in the manifold and various Graces and Gifts of God freely bestowed upon all and all growing and springing from the same Holy Root and Ground And now these two main Objections being Answered at length which did require the opening or explaining of divers things which may be of service to some I shall proceed to answer some others wherein I may be more brief 3. They object That some having good Hearts and great Love and strong Affections towards God and Heavenly and Divine things yet have weak Heads and Understandings and are not able well to conceive Words of Prayer in their Understandings And therefore should not these be helped by hearing or reading set Forms of Prayer well and Piously composed Answ. None have such weak Heads or Understandings if they have good Hearts or any measure of True Love and Affections towards God and Divine things but the same Spirit of Love which beget in them those good desires and affections hath been and is also in them a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding to beget in them or help them to conceive good Thoughts and Words of Prayer sufficient for them as is above proved and made apparent for the Spirit of God works upon the whole Soul and all its powers and abilities and as well upon the Understanding as the Will and whatever the Will cleaveth unto or the Heart loveth is first proposed and represented to the Understanding in Thoughts as lovely and desirable And if a Man have not Elâ—cution either none or small God requireth but of every man as he giveth him and he who cannot Pray with his Mouth as in the case of those who are Dumb if he pray with his Heart shall be accepted But he who can read a Prayer if his Heart and Understanding were as well and as much exercised in Divine and Spiritual things as in Earthly and Temporal and had as great a love to them and delight in them would soon find himself furnished with Words ex tempore whereby to express the desires of his heart to God And indeed in true and real Love there is for most part an admirable Force or Virtue to make a man Eloquent both to praise the thing he loveth most and also to find out Reasons and Arguments wherewith to perswade to the obtaining it He who loveth a Woman and greatly desireth to have her to be his Wife he needeth not go to a Book and steal or borrow an Oration or Form of Discourse to speak unto her in order to perswade her and if he did it would but coldly come from him and if she did know it as a very small measure of good discerning cannot but discover it that it was a borrowed Speech she would not perhaps accept it nor answer it But the natural and simple words that flow from the love of his Heart would most prevail and have the greatest force It is not Eloquence or Excellency of Speech that God requires or regards the profit and service of it is unto men and not unto God. It stirreth up mens Affections to make them the more servent but doth not more prevail with God than more simple and mean words yet God will have every man to use his own Gift and it is but want of Love to Divine and Heavenly things and want of exercise in improving and stiring up the Gifts which God hath given them that makes them think extemporary prayer by the help of the Spirit to be so hard and difficult Why may not Men find Words and Expressions as ready and easie wherewith to seek a thing of God by the help of his Spirit as they find them wherewith to seek a thing from Men which few or none do in borrowed Forms of Speech composed by another unless it be to some King or great Person that some who are feeble minded and want courage make their address by borrowed Words or by something writ on a Paper or by some other they get to speak for them But none of all these things is necessary in this case for God invites the weakest and meanest to call upon him as well as the strongest and the meanest words where the Heart is sincere are accepted of him yea suppose the words were broken and imperfect and not according to the Grammar of the Language they may be used at least in private And as for publick Prayer in the audience of an Assembly or Congregation these whom God calleth to such an Employment or Office he will no doubt sufficiently qualifie and furnish them for he who made the mouth can easily put words in it As when Moses excused his being sent to Pharaoh for his want of Eloquence The Lord said unto him Who hath made man's Mouth or who maketh the Dumb or Deaf or the Seeing or the Blind Have not I the Lord Now therefore go and I will be with thy Mouth and teach thee what thou shall sav Ex. 4. 11. And tho the Lord sent Aaron to assist him who was naturally more Eloquent yet God also put Words in Moses his Mouth as well as in the Mouth of Aaron And when Moses Prayed unto God in the Mount that Israel might prevail over Amalek we do not read that Moses borrowed any words from Aaron or that Aaron put any words into his mouth only Aaron and Hur helped to hold up his Hands And surely Moses in his Prayer here used not any Form of Prayer borrowed from Aaron or any body else altho some from this passage and Moses his being less Eloquent than Aaron have argued for using set Forms of Prayer But we cannot find it in Scripture that Moses stood with a Book of Common Prayer in his Hand and Read or Prayed out of it upon the Mountain but that he had in his Hand a Rod. 4. They Object That many by Reading or Hearing read set Forms of Pious and Godly Prayers both in publick and also in private have found their Souls and Hearts refreshed thereby and what they did read or hear read hath oft stirred up true and living Breathings in them and hearty Desires and Supplications with Thanksgivings unto God. And it is hard and uncharitable to judge that all they who read or hear set Forms of Prayer in private and publick and seldom or never use Extemporary Prayer are altogether void of true Devotion and never Pray by the Spirit because they alwaies or for the most part Pray by the Book Answ. I do readily grant that Reading or hearing Read Words of Prayer whether in publick or private if these Words have been originaly conceived by the Spirit
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. 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