A VINDICATION OF THE LORDS PRAYER AS A FORMAL PRAYER And by CHRIST'S INSTITVTION To be used by Christians as a Prayer against the Antichristian Practice and Opinion of some men Wherein Also their private and ungrounded zeal is discovered who are very strict for the observation of the Lords Day and make so light of the LORDS PRAYER By MERIC CASAUBON D. D. one of the Prebandaries of C. C. Canterb. LONDON printed by T.R. for Thomas Johnson at the Key in St. Paul's Church yard 1660. TO THE READER THE first occasion of this Treatise Christian Reader was the Relation of a strange affront done publickly unto Christ or if you will more punctually to the Lords Prayer in the chief Church of Oxford by one that had then under usurping Powers the chief Government of that famous University When the thing was done for I have heard it confirmed by divers I know not precisely this I know that ever since I heard of it I never was at rest in my mind though it might be a good while before I had the opportunity until I had written somewhat in Vindication of it It did trouble me that any man professing Christianity should so much dishonour Christ much more that he durst an argument of dismal times do it in such a place most of all that when he did it so many Christians then present had the patience to see it or the confidence to tarry in the place where such an Affront was done unto him they call Saviour Since that much hath been added to my indignation both admiration when I have been told that many that professed another way and went under another Title notwithstanding what they had said of it publickly did shamefully comply with the Court-Preachers and Parasites of the times and had given it over they also many or most of them I know somewhat is said in their defence but that somewhat if I be not mistaken in this Treatise makes the case rather worse and if such poor shifts may serve for so fowl Acts let us talk no more of Scripture against Papists or ony others I know nothing so gross but Scripture may be pretended for it with as much or more probability What is here presented unto thee Good Reader was written and ready for the Press above a year ago as some can witness that have seen it and read it How it happened that it was not printed before one occasion was that I have been often away and when in Town not always at leasure to think of it But if it be now seasonable as I hope it is it is nedless to make any further Apology why not before Only this it is fit thou shouldst know that if it had been now to do since this blessed alteration for which God make us all thankfull my expressions might have been fuller and plainer in some places In a place where I say this might happen to them as a Judgement for opposing yea persecuting somewhat once the glory of the English Reformation and the best of things that have been by humane contrivance and Authority established among men I hope I shall be understood to mean this of the English Liturgie or Book of Common Prayers Indeed that is my meaning and I hope I say no more of it than I can with the help of God make good against any that shall pretend to oppose it by either reason or Scripture Yet I know even of late what out-cries are made against it Will the Reader give me leave to give him a taste of their objections It doth much trouble them that by it some Lessons out of the Apocrypha are appointed Well if that were thought fit to be altered that is little or nothing to the substance of the book But is this such a thing in the mean time that deserves such out-cries O but things fabulous false contradictorie out of them are read Indeed this were a grievous imputation if they were proposed unto the people as any part of the Word of God Though this we may say withal that many things may appear false ridiculous contradictory at first hearing as they may be set out which upon better examination will not be found so But if nothing must be read or heard in a Church but what is unquestionably true and good that is divine Lord what will become of Sermons then such especially as we have had of late years in many places Men indeed make bold to call them generally the Word of God but I hope no body is so stupid as to think all treason blasphemy non-sense false doctrine delivered out of Pulpits to be truly the Word of God But Sermons some will say perhance are the Ordinance of God However so much will follow that somewhat may be tolerated in the Church for a greater good that is lyable to some inconveniences And I think no sober impartial man will deny but that Wisdome Ecclesiasticus and other Books that go under that title of Apocrypha do afford as good things for the Instruction of people as many Sermons usually that are not of the worst Well what are Prayers that are made extempore or would be thought so at least so much in request in these late times are they not lyable to the same inconvenience If any man shall inferre hereupon that therefore none but prescribed Prayers allowed by publick Authority are so fit to be used in a Church I for my part should readily subscribe but I doubt the necessity of the inference will not so easily be granted by all men Truly It might have been hoped that the sad experience of these late times since every man Papists only and Prelatical men excepted have been left to their liberty would have disposed men truly zealous for the Protestant Interest to a better Opinion of former times when to the grief of the Adversaries of it the Protestant Religion here flourished and to entertain now with joy what once in peevishness and love of Novelty they did not so much care for But I doubt there is somewhat else in it What that is if not already too visible to the world I rather leave to their own consciences One passage or Testimony for the Eminency of the Author and his exquisit Judgement in such things our late Gracious Soveraign now a glorious Martyr in heaven I would have added to this Treatise where the Reader shall think most convenient It was not then in my thoughts when I was upon it though indeed the Book highly deserve never to be out of our hands The words are Some men I hear are so impatient not to use in all their Devotions their own invention and gifts as they not only disuse as too many but wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer whose great guilt is that it is the warrant and original pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church †King Charles the First in His Sacred Meditations ch 16. upon the Ordinance against the Common prayer
same words in substance in both Gospels but as divers have well observed uttered by Christ and recorded accordingly by the Evangelists as spoken and prescribed by him at two several times and upon several occasions which makes it the more binding because twice delivered in the same form In St. Mathew Christ begins with the Doctrine of praying in general and after sundry precepts and instructions proceeds to a particular form After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. which is well observed by the Arabick translator exhibited in the late London Bible that noble and little less than miraculous work if we consider all Circumstances where we find this division first from ver 5. to verse 9. Doctrina Orandi Consilium de oratione then Formula Orandi an excellent method much neglected in these dayes of Inspiration when ignorant illiterate creatures are put to it illotis manibus who though they know little or nothing of Prayer in general more than this that they must be so long and keep saying whatever it be yet are made believe and are soon perswaded they do it far better than they who have long studied the duty of prayer in general and think it becomes them to consider of what they say when they are to speak to Almighty God upon any particular occasion Now before we proceed to further examination of the words it will not be amiss to take into consideration what hath been so far as we can find by books the opinion of men in general concerning this duty of prayer In ancientest times among Heathens that is men that had the light of nature only to guide them it did belong unto Poets who were the Theologues or Divines of the times to teach men forms of prayer for every Deitie they worshipped Such forms of Invocations of Orpheus so called of Homer are yet extant The doctrine of prayer was handled by philosophers as Aristotle among others but that work of his is not extant But by Plato also which is yet extant In that Treatise Plato doth much commend a form of prayer composed by some antient poet not named by him unknown to us which Calvin in his Institutions as I remember takes good notice of and is exhibited in Greek by Hugo Grotius in his Annotations upon Mathew A very commendable form indeed the Author and those times considered and which may be said in some respects to come nearer to the Lords prayer than many prayers that are made after that pattern as is pretended For I take that part of the Lords prayer to be a very considerable part of it where we are taught to pray That the Will of God not out will be done For so I think the words ought to be understood and supplyed out of that other exemplary form of prayer used by Christ himself and for himself at that time particularly O my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Mat. 26.39 And again verse 42. Thy will be done And so again verse 44. Whereas our prayers commonly instead of referring our Wills to Gods Will are that our Wills may be done and that too with much importunity Yea sometimes we are ready to expostulate with God if we have not what we ask though God knows when we have it we have many times occasion enough to wish that we had not had our wills that God had not heard our Prayers Again In the Lords Prayers we pray for our dayly bread which are general words translated by some panem indigentiaeâ— nostrae referring particulars to God who knows better than we what is convenient for us if we durst trust him Now that old form commended by Plato was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Plato indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that followeth as in prose but without the verb that is as in the verse ordinary construction doth require and so it should have been printed in Hugo Grotius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Anthologie of Greek verses and elsewhere Yet an Infinitive might have stood well enough for an Indicative if the former verb had been so too But this obiter In latin divers have done them be content with my translation for this once to save me further labour of seeking Quae data * That is things honest and just according to the opinion of divers antient Philosophers who maintain'd that nothing was truly profitable but what was honest and just So Plato so divers others Tully in his Offices at large Neither was this an Opinion in the School or Academic only for the Exercise of their tongues or wit as some lately in the Pulpit Get faith c. if it be true but an Opinion maintained and asserted by some of them in their greatest tryals as may appear by those words of Tully when the Common-real was invaded by Caesar and complyance the only way to save or to get Estates he then wrote thus unto his friend Quid rectum sit apparel quid expediat obscurum est ita tamen ut si nos ii samus qui esse debemus id est studio digni lâ—teris 〈◊〉 that is constant to our Principles and former Profession dubitare non possimus quiâ— ea maxime conducant quae sunt rectissima What grounds they had for this opinion that had no certain knowledge of any reward after this life I know not Christians have I am sure Let them look to it whom it concerns conducent vel non orantibus ultro Da Pater Alme preces damnosas Alme negato As for the sense in English though I love a good verse heartily yet my self I know was never born to be a Poet in any Language and therefore never minded it yet I think it necessary to put the words into some Rymes that it may be known what they are verses in the Original †Great God we thee beseech those good things us to grant Asked or unasked thy self doth know we want As for those things we ask if such as in the end Hurtfull thou know'st will prove from such great God defend Juvenal the Poet hath a whole Satyre of this Subject of the ignorance of man in point of praying Persius another both insist upon many particulars to shew the danger of rash hasty prayers In the Old Testament there be many prescript forms of prayers according to best Interpreters Davids Psalms in general were used and certainly intended many of them from the very beginning most of them by the ancient Jews before Christs time to that purpose But more of this by and by In point of reason therefore since prayer hath alwayes been a matter of such difficulty and danger withal and that prescript forms have been used not among Heathens only but Israelites also who would not think it most probable that when Christ said as his words are recorded by St. Mathew verse 9. After
mind by acknowledging them of the Church of England in those dayes to deale with them as another man might have thought they had deserved Yet it is somewhat that even he did charg them of grosse ignorance and error I have done with objections There may be more but I do not think them considerable and there will be no end if we must heare or the Reader be told what any man can say I will conclude all with those excellent words though indeed the substance of them is in St. Cyprian I find in the book intitled A Collection of Private Devotions c. often printed and well deserving it in the preface of it A prayer the Lords prayer whereby we have not only Christs own name to countenance our suits in whose name if we aske any thing we shall have it saith the Gospell but Christs own words also who himself is our Aduocate and being best acquainted with the Lawes and phrases of his Fathers Court hath drawn up such a Bill for us both for matter and form as shall make our supplications acceptable and prevalent with Almighty God And though men should speak with Angels tongues yet words so pleasing to the ears of God as those which the Son of God did compose cannot possibly be uttered nor any prayers so well framed as those that are made by this patterne FINIS The Letter mentioned and promised here Pag. 84. Reverendo viro D. Merico Casaubono Presbytero Canonico Ecclesiae Primitialis Cantuariensis Vir Reverende Animarum te curam gerere nec Cantuariensium tantum Anglicarum sed externarum satis ostendunt tot missa ad me munera talia omnia ex quibus ego possim fieri melior alii qui per me beneficii tui participes fient Theophylactus Graecorum ante se compendium velut vox est Graecae Ecclesiae Pauli sensa bona fide custodita nobis exhibens Acta Regem vestrum optimum Scotosque inter non quidem efficient ut ego motus illos feroces imo feros quos damnavi semper magis damnem sed ut quod mihi semper visum fuit aliis etiam firmè persuadeam Multum autem refert existimationis Regiae haec acta verti in Gallicum sermonem nec quiescam donec ei labori aliquem idoneum invenero ad id animavero Richardi Hookeri scripta ante annos multos vidi quanquam in sermone mihi non percognito facile cognovi exactissimi operis utilitatem quae tanta est ut hunc quoque librunt verti sed in latinum sermonem pervelim Quaeram si quis hic est qui idefficere cupiat Caeterum tibiid ipsum cordi esse velim Anglicana versio libri nostri pro veritate Religionis Christianae valde mihi placet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ego eundem librum latine rursus nunc editurio additis pro mantissa testimoniis ad quae liber respicit Paro de jure belli ac pacis editionem novam cum novorum testimoniorum quos fine libri annotationum vice subnectam ingenti accessione Heinsiana ad Novum Testamentum ubi accepero expecto autem in horas cogitabo an aliquid nobis quod dicamus reliqui fecerit Quod Johannis Reigersbergii hospitis quondam tui memor esse pergis in eo rem mihi pergratam ac tua summa bonitate dignam facis est is nunc in patria sua quoquo iturus est circumlaturus semper secum mentem plenam sensu beneficiorum tuorum Literae viri supra omnem praedicationem positi patris tui multum hic leguntur Si quas habes praeter editas aut aliorum ad ipsum argumentosiores eas si publico dones multos demerearis me autem potissimum ejus quae in ipso eluxit pietatis simul atque eruditionis maximum admiratorem Mitto tibi quas habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Patris ita tui amantissimus Labbaeus Si qua repererim alia etiam eorum te faciam participem semperque aut ostendam aut cupiam certe ostendere quanti maximum patrem fecerim faciam ejus vestigiis tam faeliciter insistentemfilium Lutetiae 19. Septembris M. DC XXXIX Tuus toto animo H. GROTIVS
book I will not excuse my self for this passage in the rest if the Reader think I have said more than I needed I crave his pardon and bid him Farewell A POSTSCRIPT SInce this was printed and ready to come forth a book or Pasquil rather it is so full of railing intitled The Common Prayer Book unmasked c. came to my sight and I thought my self engaged by the Argument to look upon it It is such a peece of exquisit Non-sense of groundlesse impudent Sophistry with bitter rayling and much profane jeering all along that I must needs think they that have patience exceptengaged by some particular consideration to read such stuffe without detestation may as plausibly be perswaded to sing Ballads in stead of Holy Hymes and to think that men serve God best in Tap-houses-The whole strength of the Book lyeth in this The Masse-Book Breviaries c. are idolatrous popish-Books therefore whatsoever is taken out of them or may be supposed to be taken out of them because to be found there is popish and idolatrous Now a good part both of the Old and New Testament besides the whole Book of Psalmes is to be found in Mass-books and Breviaries Is any man so blind that dooh not see what will follow And is it not the same reason for many godly prayers ond forms not to speak of Ceremonies though it be true of them also that were in use in time of purest Christianity long before Popery was heard of yet to be found in Mass-books and Breviaries Or is it the bare word Mass that turneth all into Idolatry why might not it be a good word whatever it is now a thousand years ago Many ages are not yet passed when Canticles or the Song of Songs as it is in the Original was called in English the Ballad of Ballads Now many if not most ballads we now so call are profane or ridiculous and that word now a word of Scorn therefore the Canticles or Song of Songs shall be no longer part of Scripture but meer Idolatry Certainly it must be granted that wise Governours see much more than ordinary men else such senslesse impious stuffe a man would think would not be permitted to be publick But what is all this may some say perchance to the Lords Prayer our subject Alas who seeth not if all that is in Missals and Breviaries or say taken out of them immediately perchance not originally be idolatrous then we know what must become of the Lords Prayer being there more than once upon several occasions and the first thing there that offers it self to the view in some of those Books This did oblige me to take some notice of the book and so I have done ERRATA PAg. 4. l. 7. r. whom p. 18. l. 7. r. independents p. 19. l. 2. r. transsubst p. 29. l. 17. r. end of f. p. 32. l. 2. r. had p. 54. l. 12. r. Enthusiasm p. 80. l. 5. r do but lat p. 81. l. 10. r. quaeram p. 92. 11. r. Isa 66.11 A VINDICATION OF THE LORDS PRAYER As a formal Prayer and by Christs Institution to be used by Christians as a Prayer against the Antichristian Practise and opinions of some WE will forbear all Prefaces and Rhetorical insinuations and hasten to the main business Truth may need such sometimes by reason of mens infirmities and there be examples in Scripture that may contend with the choicest Rhetorick humane Authors afford to justifie it if need were But in such a case as I conceive this is where common sense best reason Authority divine and humane all that can be desired in a cause are so manifestly visible the best Rhetorick we can use is to use no Rhetorick at all It is the nature of Truth to be most lovely when seen naked but it is not the luck of all Truth to carry so much light and lustre with it as will pierce thorow all Obstacles and make it visible to all eyes I hope it is the luck of this that we contend for here the Reader will quickly see let him but read I will not say without prejudice for that is not to be hoped but not obstinately resolved against the ingenuity of his confession though his conscience be convicted And here in the first place we profess we pretend not to write against any who say or teach that what Christ hath commanded so commanded without limitation of time or place absolutely and generally to be observed ought not to be done by men that profess Christianity There is no man so simple but would presently make this inference This were to deny him in deed whom we profess to honour and worship in words Except we should perchance establish such a power upon Earth equivalent or superiour to the power of Christ a power to abrogate or ratifie at pleasure what is commanded Which opposeth and exalteth it self above all that is called God c. 2 Thes 2.4 How far this may belong to the Pope of Rome who by his Canonists and others doth take upon himself to have a power Supra contra omne jus contra jus naturale gentium civile humanum divinum c. contra Apostolum Vetus Testamentum c. to make de peccato non peccatum de non peccato peccaum how far I say the Pope of Rome may be concerned in that place of Scripture I will not enquire There be even of that side professed Papists that have laid it to his charge and applyed those very words unto him But it is not to our purpose to enquire They are not Papists who we have to do with We say therefore once again We do not pretend to write against any who maintain positively Christ should not be obeyed Or yet more particularly not against any who acknowledging these words of Christ recorded Mat. 6. and Luk. 11. Our Father which art in Heaven c. to be a prescript form of Prayer forbid us and forbear themselves to use it as a Prayer but against them who allow not these words to be a Prayer but a bare direction or platform of Prayer only and upon that account forbid and forbear as I have said who therefore will be ready to say The question is not properly of honour or dishonour done unto Christ but of the right use or understanding of his words This may seem plausible at first hearing But here I must desire the Reader to consider that scarce ever was any opinion so false or so impious but men could find some words to set it out in another shape if we will content our selves with a superficial view or will look at a distance through such prospectives as shall be put into our hands We charge the Papists with impiety for denying to ordinany Christians the use of Gods Word They will say they honour the Scripture in keeping them from it who through ignorance and simplicity are more likely to abuse it than to make that use of it for which it was
are but men not Gods But we go on They were but men they say truly I say so too they were but men not Gods but men that lived so many ages nearer to the source and spring of that infallible authority then familiarly conversant we speak now of the ancientest or primitive Christians and resident among men Men who generally forsook all things that are dearest unto men usually for which things many in this age make nothing to forsake their former faith to adhere unto Christ Men by whose holiness of life and intolerable to flesh and blood sufferings for Christ more than by their preaching whole kingdomes and Nations of Pagans and Infidels were gained to the faith of Christ and why the consent of such so many in several ages in different places of the world should not be more considerable but I will proceed no further in the comparison Certainly if any man not engag'd by worldly interests can be so simple as not of himself to be sensible I will not expect that any reasoning can restore him And why should it be a wonder to a rational man that some are so simple among Christians who knows that natural fools and Idiots are little less than worshipped by the Turks the great Conquerors of the world for no other respect but because fools and Idiots We therefore take it for granted untill we know of any that oppose it that we have besides cleer Scripture Consensum consuetudinem the general consent and practise of one thousand and five hundred or six hundred years on our side But it will not be amiss to set down some of their words for the better satisfaction of the Reader Ultimò sequitur tritum illud vestrum Papisticum argumentum saith Johnson before named de consuetudine mille quingentorum annorum Let the Reader take notice that he calls this prescription of 1500 years arpopish argument whereby he doth yield to Papists much more than I would or can I know nothing among them truly popish that can prescribe to so much antiquity De quoâ—etiam siâ—constat quod vos pro concesso sumitis hoc tamen semper tenendum vocem Dei in Scriptura esse regulam sidei c. He doth not say it is altogether so but whether so or no for he brings nothing to disprove it his evasion is consent of many men or ages is nothing because the Scripture only is our rule And again a little after Postrema tua ratio petita est ab authoritate Patrum ut vocantur quos certum in multis errasse c. Here we have the consent of the Fathers yielded to us We would commend their modesty for yielding to the truth so far if at the same time they did not more immodestly oppose their own judgements to the acknowledged consent and authority of so many ages and so many much better men than themselves can pretend unto So from former times we come now to latter or present We will not mention the Papists so called though no man can deny but there be among them men of great learning and I believe religious but because there is no question of their consent and their authority not so much stood upon by them we have to do with therefore needless here as I imagine As for Protestant Divines or others I think we need not search into the writings of particular men and trouble the Reader with multitude of quotations which every body that can read and hath access to books may easily store himself with if he will the practise of all Protestant Churches in all places of Europe I can give no account of Independent Conventicles which may appear by different Formularies and Liturgies by them set out as the best evidence of their opinions generally so I suppose will give best satisfaction so that although some particular acknowledged Protestant Writer should be found to be of another mind yet it can be no prejudice to what we have said of their general consent Now for their Formularies in a business so exposed to every mans scrutiny that will take any paines to satisfie himself I shall not use many words I have some have had and seen many more in several languages never yet lighted upon any in which the Lords Prayer was not prescribed to be used by Preists and people in expresse termes as in the Gospel So upon confidence that this also will be granted unto us I shall forbeare further labour As for particular authors though I said before we cannot undertake for nor are indeed bound to take notice of every particular man yet I may truly say no such is known unto me either by any reading in former times or by any quotation that I have met with in others upon this occasion Calvin saith of it in his Institutions as much as I would desire and so in his Harmony but that he hath an expression which might be wondered at non jubet nos conceptis verbis uti had he not presently after explained himself by a more full expression ut nuper dixi c. They do him great wrong therefore that would perswade us otherwise of him taking the advantage of some particular words when his meaning both by his practise witnesse those Formularies set out in his time printed at Geneva and by his writings is so easily known Neither ought we to wonder if neither Calvin or any other whilst they commend unto us the Lords Prayer be careful at the same time to prevent that their words might not be drawn to a wrong sense as though they commended it as the only prayer to be used either publikely or privatly which would be a great and dangerous mistake but of that more afterward I have mentioned Luther somewhere as a great admirer of this holy Prayer It shall not be amiss therefore to set down some of his words In his Enchiridium piarum precationum which I have by it self in a handsome forme but in his workes also in the Wittenburg edit A. D. 1558 to be found he saith Sum autem plane certus Christianum satis abunde orasse si Orationem Dominicam vere ac rectè oret quocunque id tempore quamcunque ejus volet partem Ne que enim si multum verborum numeres ideo bona est oratio quod Christus quoque testatur Math. 6. Sed si crebrò ac cum magno ardore ad Deum suspires And again in the same book Ubi ad verbum totam Orationem Dominicam recitavi partem unam aut plures si libet repeto c. and concludes Hic meus est orandi mos et ratio Nam quotidie adhuc Orationem hanc Dominicam quodammodo sugo uti infantulus bibo mando uti adultus nec tamen ea satiari possum Atque etiam dulcior gratior mihi est ipsis Psalmis quibus tamen mirificè unice delector quos maximi facio Profectò res ipsa clamat à summo
all upon the fourth Commandment or Old Testament Dr. Prideaux the publick Professor of Divinity in Oxford for many years before these late wars a man generally accounted by the preciser sort as well as others till this late Reformation and that he was a Bishop both learned and godly did publickly maintain at a solemn Act in Oxford almost as much as Gomarus and quotes divers Protestant Divines as Calvin Bullinger Ursinus and others for his opinion The Book is translated into English the Reader may do well not to rest upon what I say but to peruse the book it self being made so common and vulgar it may be he will not repent his labour Walaeus another Protestant Divine no obscure man neither is the man who of all out-landish Writers I have seen hath written or may be thought to have written most though long before in complyance to these times yet even he where he tells us of the Edicts of the Synod of Dort for the more strict observation of that day commends their moderation in that they did not condemn them that were of a different opinion in his Preface and in his Book he allows very well of Constantine's Law for liberty upon Sundayes in harvest-time when the weather proves unseasonable as also of moderate and civil recreations upon that day so it be after the publick service of the day performed and not before or between Now for the Scriptures which are the Rule of our faith if a man look upon the Old Testament upon a supposition that what is there concerning the Jewish Sabbath is applyable a thing not easily proved to the Lords day or Sunday of the Christians so he shall find many things both in the Law and in the Prophets that may be thought to require great preciseness But if we look into the New Testament our most immediate Rule as Christians there will not neither in all that is recorded of Christ as either spoken or done by him in the four Gospels nor in all the Writings of his Apostles any thing be found that doth make that way but rather to the contrary which is some wonder if it were so material to Christianity especially after so much recorded in the Gospels of Christs speeches tending in ordinary construction to the abrogation of that legal or ceremonial preciseness And it may be further observed that those for the most part who commonly press those passages of the Old Testament concerning the Sabbath notwithstanding that so much is to be said against the pertinency of those allegations yet in other things as in matter of usury contrary to the opinion and practise of most of the old Clergy or prelatical men they can swallow abundance of Texts which in all probability though I conclude nothing should make it unlawfull at least in Clergy men For my part as I said before I conclude nothing and I hope the ingenuous charitable Reader will not conclude from any thing I have said of the Lords day that I am against the religious yea and strict in some respects observing of it I am not I never was I will say more if a man be not fully resolved and satisfied about this point but though he have taken pains to be satisfied stands in a kind of Aequilibrium or Even-ballance between both opinions so that for ought he knows either of them may prove true or false in such a case provided that he condemn not others that go another way such especially as do it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of faith and conscience as to themselves men otherwise religious in their life and conversation and that he make it not a cloak of disobedience to oppose lawfull Authority which in all things lawfull or doubtfull ought to be obeyed in such a case Isay with these cautions we have inserted I hold it much safer according to the old saying Peccare in meliorem partem to be more precise than he need perchance then for ought he knows to take more liberty upon that day than God hath allowed But the case being so between the Lords day and the Lords Prayer that of the one no question hath ever been among Christians of the other as to that which is required by some that would be thought most zealous much question and controversie how this can stand with true impartial zeal and piety that the one should be so much pressed and the other so little regarded I leave it to the unpartiall reader his further and sober consideration I might very well end here For after so much light of Scripture and so much weight of authority the best that can be desired in a cause I make some question whether it be so lawfull and warrantable to give eare to any objection What if a man will undertake to prove by Scripture that there is no such thing as the Resurection of the dead or the immortality of the soul there is Scripture enough it is true for both to satisfy a man that is not wilfully blind or factiously refractorie a Quaker an Anabaptist However he is but a poor Sophister that cannot forme objections yea frame arguments in shew out of the Scriptures against both To dispute with such is to yield to them so it may thought at least that they have some ground to doubt and that is some wrong to the truth Not to hear them I hold it generally the best course both for them if not past all hopes to reclaim them and for others to keep them within sobrietie However after so much premised because all men are not of one temper and some more taken with sleight then weight in point of reason I will take notice of such objections that I have mett with or could think any way considerable Truely many are not so especially such as I have met with in that Johnson before named You shall have a taste if you please that you may judge of the rest Heare then I pray one of his maine proofes why what we call the Lords Prayer cannot be a prayer If it be so saith he as you say that Our Father c. is a prayer I would know of you whose prayer shall it be called Christs his Apostles or ours If you say Christs why Christ did not so pray for himself else he that had no sin must be thought to have prayed for remission of sinnes p. 22. but taught his Disciples so to pray If you say the Apostles we do not finde in all the New Testament that they did ever use it If you say Ours then it will follow that we did pray before we were borne c. I am so farre from thinking that this wants any refutation that I cannot otherwise think when I reade it but that the man had som distemper in his braines and had I been acquainted with him I would freindly have perswaded him to have gone to a physician I am very confident good physick would do more good if themselves could be perswaded to many