And Lastly a constant demonstration of this affection throughout the whole course of our lives especially in our confessions prayers and thanksgivings to God First Then do we justly contemplate the works of God when we make diligent search into them and fix our minds upon the excellency of their nature and orderly disposal for use and ornament When we consider both the Heavens and the Earth and more particularly reflect upon our selves as David did and see how fearfully and wonderfully we are made that from hence we may infer the wisdom goodness and power of God 2. Then do we perform the next thing preparative to prayer and adoration when upon the intellectual view of any of Gods works of Creation or Providence we own and acknowledge his glorious Attributes thus rendred apparent to us because there are sufficient footsteps of these in the works of his hands Thus the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psal 19.1 2. And the invisible things of him sayes St. Paul are clearly seen from the Creation of the World being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 3. We ascend another step of moral service when by due consideration we act with understanding and judgment upon the works of God inferring from thence his glorious Attributes and upon the contemplation and view we are properly and truly affected with them as things that mark out a most excellent Being This affection will appear in our admiration love and awful regard to him in our humility of mind and dependance on him in our rejoycing and confiding in him and the like acts of rational creatures towards their great and Soveraign Creator And therefore Lastly we must give all possible testimony of these affections throughout the whole course of our lives by adoring him whom we have cause to fear by invoking him on whom we depend by giving thanks to him who is our great Benefactor by continual calling on his power for aid and praying his goodness to relieve us in our necessities and by a constant obedience to him who is our King and most Supreme Governour Now though none almost who is endowed with any reason and understanding can refuse from the prospect of this to conclude prayer to be both necessary and advantageous Yet the Disputers of this World especially when they like not the man that writes it will not be so easily satisfied For 1. Some have conjectured things to come to pass by chance and fortune denying Gods Government of the World by Providence 2. Others have introduced a Stoical fatality concluding all things to be necessary banishing what we call contingency Now whether this is said to come to pass by the concatenation of second Causes by the fatality of Stars or by reason of absolute and irrespective Decrees This Principle like the former takes away the great reason of prayer as it regards the procuring benefits to our selves and renders our petitions useless and in vain if God be inexorable and has so tied himself up by his own Decrees that he will not be intreated by the most profound and sincere devotions nor the most affectionate humble and hearty prayers of men whom he has yet commanded to petition him Oh! What a strange being do some men make him This supposes him to be so unlike to the great Maker and Governor of the Universe that a man of but a tolerable nature and ingenuity would be ashamed of such a description of himself Now though it might be a sufficient answer to Objections raised from such absurd and ridiculous principles to expose the propositions upon which such inferences are built Yet because it would too much swell this Discourse I shall rather do it with reference unto prayer by this more short and ready Method 1. By shewing that notwithstanding all his dark and most secret Decrees God has promised to hear and grant mens lawful petitions 2. That he has done so even when he had seemed to determine things opposite to what they asked And 3. by giving some reasons for this Duty of prayer which will determine the point how great soever the Objections against it may appear to be First God has promised to hear and grant mens lawful petitions Offer to God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high And call upon me says God in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.14 15. When Solomon had finished that glorious Temple devoutly dedicated to the honour of God the great Jehovah signified to him the acceptance both of his prayer and dedication together with the wise choice of that place for an house of Sacrifice And then he makes this solemn promise If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send a pestilence among my people If my people upon whom my name is called shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land And mine eyes shall be open and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place 2 Chron. 7th Chap. 13 14 15. And if any one should unreasonably think that such promises only concerned the Jews when the thing which it is quoted to prove is equally as to the main substance a duty and an incouragement to the Christians let him quit the Old Testament in point of Controversie and we will presently make use only of the New But then some Jesuited Protestants might many times lose their Cause if they had not Prophecies to retire to in the dark and would have nothing but the Book of the Revelation to guide them Yet however let us peruse the New Testament and the promises in this case will appear more large and comprehensive where we have the blood of Sprinkling speaking better things than the blood of Abel that pleads strongly for the acceptance of Christians lawful petitions where we have the Mediator of a better Covenant who continually appears in the presence of God presenting both his sufferings and his triumphs and in virtue of his Sacrifice upon the Cross now liveth to make intercession for us and therefore our prayers through his hands ascend as incense when we offer our Spiritual Sacrifices by him our Intercessor does sufficiently consecrate them in whose name we are exhorted to come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need Heb. 4.16 Nay our blessed Saviour himself incourages all his Disciple to make their petitions to Almighty God Ask says he and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him
pray to that which they thought to be none at all and therefore when they supplicated such Images which they could not chuse but know were nothing but the carved work of mens hands yet they therefore prayed to them because they thought them to be inspired with divinity and that the Deity it self was confined to some residence in them and so they pretended to address themselves to their God within the Image and not unto the Block or Stone it self but through the case they pass'd to the divinity such little shifts do others also who should understand Religion better use to shelter themselves under the shadow of their Idols being so well instructed by the Pagans who were more ancient than themselves But to give the honour of God to a creature must needs appear unreasonable in Religion since no Subject can with Loyalty pay the homage due only to the King to any though the most noble Peer when it is referved to the King alone and therefore God having reserved divine worship such as solemn prayer of which I treat only to himself no man can lawfully give it to another and think it to consist with true Religion But of this more in my last argument for prayer to be made to God only Thirdly God alone is to be the object of our prayers because none but he can answer the end and design of our petitions Who amongst all the glories of the Creation is so capable of understanding or bestowing the things we petition for or endowed with such qualifications as may render him fit for rational creatures in all their exigencies to become devout petitioners unto Can any give us the pardon of our sins by his own authority or dispence with the breach of Gods Law but himself When he conveys this by the ministration of others they are only his substituted Delegates and he no more gives his glory to them than he will part with his praise to a graven Image Who can bestow grace or glory but he who has an infinite fulness of both whose treasure is inexhaustible whose spirit from whence our graces are conveyed is compared in Scripture not only to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth but also to a fountain of living waters always springing up unto eternal life And who can bestow the glory above but he whose presence makes it so whose right hand holds Stars and has all Crowns at his own disposal Who can rid us of many troubles especialy those that disquiet our minds but he that can rebuke tempests and storms dispel the clouds that hang over them and deliver the righteous out of all their afflictions There are three things necessarily supposed in a person qualified for rational creatures to make their religious addresses to 1. That he be capable of hearing and understanding our petitions 2. That he is able to bestow what we supplicate him for And 3. That he is willing to give what we beg if it may be consistent with his prudence and our welfare And whom can we find thus qualified but the great God whom we adore and worship Who is omniscient and can understand our petitions and knows our wants Omnipotent and therefore can answer our desires and of infinite goodness and so willing to relieve us in such things as may consist with his providence and our advantage If these things are wanting in the object of our prayers all our addresses will be rendred fruitless If he cannot hear or is not able to relieve or is very hard and not willing to be kind to us To what purpose then do we utter our wants and earnestly beg relief from him If beggars knew such men among our selves they would spare their breath whilst these passed by so that I may now propose Eliphaz's question in the Book of Job with better reason than that in which the Papists urge it Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn Job 5.1 Angels themselves would be charged with folly should they attempt an answer to our religious petitions without a declar'd permission or command from their Maker how much more those who have dwelt in houses of clay whose foundation was in the dust who have been crushed before the moth and all their excellency and glory which we admired here went away when they were destroyed from Morning to Evening The dead for ought I could ever yet understand can no more hear us than Baal could his Prophets when they cryed to him from morning till noon they can no more answer to our call than they can praise God with the instruments of speech when their deferred carcasses lay rotting in a Grave But God himself has given testimonies of his audience and several waies convers'd with men He hears our prayers and understands our thoughts afar off He has three attributes that render him fit for our religious addresses For 1. he is omnipotent and therefore there is nothing we can petition from him but he is able to grant and to bestow it For power being only an ability so to exercise causality as to influence causes to produce their effects he that is the Author of causes being the origin of all things must needs be the fountain of all power and he that is so must be omnipotent and therefore is able to fullfil our desires 2. He is omniscient too and therefore certainly knows our wants For knowledge consists in an exertion of power as all actions proceed from an ability and are the exercise of some power he therefore that is omnipotent must needs be omniscient also For were there any thing that he could not know there would be something out of the compass of his power and the attribute of his omnipotence would be weakned and destroyed nor does the not knowing or effecting impossibilities or contradictions at all invalidate these glorious attributes because those are so far from being things in act that they are not capable of being such in power nor can any futurity give them being And what is and must remain nothing can neither be the proper object of strength or knowledge 3. God has infinite goodness essential to his being the creation of the world proceeded from it and that he now supports it is owing to his grace and favour and his goodness besides particular examples is visible to us in his daily providence without the two former attributes he could neither have made nor could he order and govern the world and to make him a Being with infinite knowledge and Almighty power without any goodness to allay the exercise of it surpposes him to be nothing else but an omnipotent Devil for what Beings are that have sufficient power without any good nature to restrain it they that are frequently oppress'd by others know by too woful and melancholy experience These glorious Attributes therefore of power knowledge and goodness being thus rationally fixed in the God whom we adore he becomes a fit
and Divine Prayer ' That prayer among men is supposed to be a mean to change the person to whom I we pray But prayer to God does not change him but only fits us for receiving the things prayed for Yet this cannot possibly be wholsom Doctrine unless we allow it some grains of salt by distinguishing betwixt Gods Essence and his Will his Essence indeed cannot be changed by our prayers but his Will may Again before the former Assertion can be accounted true Gods Decrees must be distinguished into absolute and conditional His absolute Decrees cannot be altered but his conditional may as I have proved before However we must conclude that one end of prayer and therefore one design of Gods commanding it though this cannot be all next to a profession of our dependance on him and that natural subjection we owe to him seems to be the influence it has upon our selves to produce the growth and actions of piety and vertue and the purifying our Souls and Bodies too for the reception of those favours for which we make our humble petitions And when we shall with some thoughtfulness consider what a direct influence our prayers have to the accomplishing such glorious designs we cannot deny even this argument to conclude our duty For how effectually do our prayers move us to those vertues for the accomplishment of which we implore Gods grace and assistance if we are at all hearty in our addresses And how directly do they check those vices which we both lament a former and pray against a future commission of Our confessions bring our sins to remembrance and those expressions by which we aggravate them with truth cause us to abominate those miscarriages which we thus with horror most dreadfully decipher Our petitions mind us of our own infirmities and the person from whom we obtain relief and our very thanksgivings for blessings received impress our minds with a sense of his goodness and power from whom comes every good and perfect gift And the frequent repetitions of such a duty cannot but inform us of our great obligations to so good a benefactor fill our hearts with awe and reverence and cause returns in the obedience of our lives to him on whom we are made sensible of such a large dependance and from whom as often as we say our prayers we acknowledge to have renewed obligations So that were this great and solemn duty of prayer frequently practised with due humility and intention of mind it would be impossible for men to act those sins with industry and delight which they do and must confess with sorrow and beg the pardon of with seriousness and repentance And I may with confidence give men assurance that if they would more frequently pray they would sin less and the rational and humble management of their addresses to Almighty God would have great influence upon their dispositions and actions far beyond what those can expect by another method who do not frequently and seriously adventure the experiment For as according to Plato's Philosophy the Sovereign good and welfare of the Soul is the possession of the likeness of God when the mind having the knowledge of him is transformed into him So by often admiring and adoring his Attributes we earnestly desire that which we adore and endeavour to resemble what we admire it being natural to rational men to imitate in themselves that which they commend and praise in another Now this Image of God which in us consists in the habitual possession of his most glorious and as far as they are capable of being called communicable perfections is that which best distinguishes us from beasts and our souls themselves when they are immers'd in matter and converse only with sensual objects do as it were lose their nature and tincture themselves by their conversation and so much the less rational they become by how much the less they are virtuous and religious And therefore Grillus in Plutarch Phaed. reasons and asserts well when he affirms that if Religion be once taken from men they are not only nothing better than Brutes but more miserable For that being subject to many evils their troubles are accented and their disquietments enlarged beyond the perception of other Creatures of a meaner and more insensible nature 'T is Religion therefore that perfects and consummates the beings of men that causes them to aspire to Glory through all the crosses and afflictions of this world and prepares them for an endless immortality And in this it renders them far superiour to the lower Brutes who live some time and then die and perish Now such being the fruits which grow with and are born upon our prayers to which Religion has so natural a tendency that whenever it is genuine and sincere 't is blessed with the production of such a glorious off-spring and prayer and devotion rising up at last into the possession of eternal life this consideration cannot but convince us that prayer is both our priviledge and our duty if we either regard God or our selves the honour of our Maker or our uninterrupted and eternal wellfare The great God has appointed prayer to be the means through the intercession of our Saviour to procure to us Grace here and Glory hereafter and we invert the methods of Divine Providence when we expect the conveyance in another way For though he that is Omniscient knows our wants and what is not present to make us happy Although he is acquainted with his own resolutions nor can we prescribe methods to him or with modest devotion desire more than he has promised and intends to grant Yet in prayers directed by his most holy word he commands us to ask in order to our obtainment of what he vouchsafes to give nor will he be inclined to bestow his blessings without the signification of our desires Vuit Deus rogavi vult cogi vult quâdam importunitate vinci sayes St. Austin bona est haec violentia c. God will be intreated he will be compell'd he will be overcome by a certain importunity this is a good violence when in prayer we wrestle with Almighty God and like Jacob we will not let him go till he has left his blessing behind him He loves in our devotions that we should thus with due humility importune him with demonstration of kindness and affection at the same time when without fainting we express our wants He will neither withhold grace nor glory nor any other good thing from these And certainly if prayer be necessary to obtain such things without which we must be miserable both in this world and in that which is to come I have sufficiently evidenced prayer to be a duty incumbent upon all who resolve not to renounce their own happiness by missing those graces that are both gained and exercised in it who love communion with God here respect their eternal glory hereafter and are not so regardless of themselves as for ever to abandon the
The reason why I insist not now on such things as these is because the main Subject of my Discourse being prayer only I would not have my inferences transgress the Rule in charging Adversaries with such Errors as are not plainly to be concluded from the premisses It will be sufficient at this time to shew how abominable the Popish allowed prayers are without intermixing the things that attend them Now the Papists must needs offend God with their publick prayers and consequently must enrage instead of appeasing him because they are not suitable to his Sacred word nor that Worship which Christians in the purest times used in their publick Divine Service And this will be confirmed by two reasons 1. Because their publick Prayers are in an unknown tongue 2. Because they pray to creatures when they ought to pray to God only First The Publick Prayers of the Romish Church are in an unknown tongue sometimes unknown to the Priest himself who by the help of accents the advantage he has of hiding his infirmities in those he pretends as he is directed to repeat secretly and by frequent use can untowardly pronounce them But more especially are they unknown to the people at least the generality of them who cannot with any reason be supposed to understand languages beyond what their Mothers taught them unless Mother Church can inspire them with cloven tongues and turn all its Children into Apostles For Latin in which the Roman publick prayers are uttered is now become a learned Language in all those Dominions which the Pope overspreads and shadows with his wings and the gaining of it requires a distinct from vulgar education it being the general Language of no Country in the World and therefore how should the multitude of a Nation understand it Now Publick Prayer as I have shewed before ought to be so composed for matter and words that all who are bound to join in it should fully understand it that they may apprehend before they give their consent to it that so they may heartily agree in each petition and say Amen at the close and period But how can people possibly consent or intend their minds and engage their affections with any reason to such a service which is uttered in a language which they understand not In such a case they may by the imposition of anther blaspheme God when they think that they adore him and wish for a curse instead of a blessing And yet this is the general practice of the Roman Church And would be as it was in England were it established again Though I may notwithstanding without disparagement to any suppose that many that may peruse this writing however many that heard it from the Pulpit cannot pretend to understand Latin And yet this Service is what all persons in the Roman Communion are obliged to under most rigid and severe penalties unless they will renounce the Decrees of that Council beyond the Controversie of our Neighbouring Nation which they must own to be general and infallible though both the adjuncts are falsly applied For the Council of Trent Sess 22. cap. 8. determines for this unreasonable and brutish service and obliges those who understand not the Language But not without due caution in the Decree that a power of dispensing may remain to the Pope in cases that may best serve his turn with those to whom he thinks fitting to appoint Prayers in their vulgar Language who may be inclinable to receive or else to recall banished Popery For the Council has worded their Decree of this as if they were afraid of the Objections of those who on the Apostles side maintain prayers in a Known Tongue but despise the contrary viz. That it has seemed to the Fathers not to be expedient that every where Mass should be laid in the vulgar tongue This not to be expedient is a soft expression which they can when they please explain effectually that it is not lawful and every where when it serves their turn will be easily exchanged for any where But it helps Bellarmin very much in his answer to the argument against the necessity of Latin Service from the Popes Dispensation to the Moravians to use the Sclavonian Language in their Divine Offices and helps forward the like Dispensation to our selves for a present turn in this matter were we so well prepared as a late executed Papist thought to acknowledge the Supremacy of the Pope and in other things to conform so much to the Romish Church that it might in time be again compleatly planted amongst us that so the Pope might receive plentiful fruits from those trees which from Rome he had transplanted into so rich a soil as England is But at last without question whatever might be granted at the first we should be served as Bellarmin tells us the Moravians were even turned wholly to our Latin Service when the Pope had raised Bishops and Priests of his own to advance themselves and curb others and England were well inhabited by Italians But they who can dispense with Gods Law may easily dispense with one of their own Especially an Indulgence in some things may be a convenient instrument to confound the principles which men being used to are loth to renounce all at once and to introduce others gradually till they embrace all Thus 't is usual for one who intends to drive a flock of sheep before him he will let them feed beyond their bounds till he is got on the commanding side of them and then he drives them into what Coop or Pen he pleases And truly we who by the favour of God and piety of Princes Profess the truly Ancient and Apostolick Faith had need walk circumspectly and look about us for fear of those Popish snares that are set for us by Popish Emissaries to catch and imprison us first that they may in triumph lead us Captives to their great Prince and Master For the Pope is like the old Serpent if you once allow him his desired Supremacy he will quickly become Infallible and then our whole Cause is lost Give him but an hole for his head to peep through and it will not be long ere he wriggles in his whole body But Blessed be God we have no need of him though he plainly discovers that he has need of us Nor do we desire to partake in or rob him of his service but to continue in our own most holy Worship And if we can help it he shall not take it away from us 'T is true indeed some Romanists have thought us to be readily prepared for their Communion being qualified with vice and debauchery enough which they themselves have been teaching us for many years taking their advantage from that unlimited Loyal joy which possess'd the Nation at the Kings Return to take his Right and to sit upon that Throne from which he was barr'd by Usurpation and Force But this great Restauration being the handy-work of God the Devil and Rome thought
well act as they who pretend to the most magnified inspiration And as the Swan was never used in Sacrifices under the Law So will an Hypocrite though he is never so subtil be rejected by God in the service of the Gospel Because like the Swan under the white plumes and pleasant voice their lies hidden a black Skin But notwithstanding this the Hypocrite in a seeming Zeal and Devotion may frequently exceed in external sweat and gesture too him that is most serious and cordial in his prayers Though when we see so much smoke we easily perceive that the flame does not ascend For although art may vye with nature it self and the cunning Hypocrite who trades in Religion may enable himself or his customers may inform him how he may outdo the rational acts of true devotion so as to entrap the multitude yet in this the cheat will be plainly discovered and his design will be written in open characters on the matter he utters with a fervency beyond the modesty of devotion and appear also to the most vulgar eye if the head in which it is fix'd is considerate Themistocles was discerned to be no right Athenian even by a plain and simple woman of the City because the great care he had in the pronunciation of his words caused her to perceive that he affected only but had not the proper phrase and accents of Athens And indeed unless extempore men worship one God and we another it will not be either a formal head exactly adorned nor a grave aspect nor either hard or soft expressions although attended with an affected tone No nor Zeal transported into Frenzy and madness nor all the effects of subtilty or art or the easie endowments even of nature it self that can be able to recommend our prayers to that God who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men for he if we have true notions of him loves an honest and good mind beyond either the complements of the Formalist or the cheats of the Hypocrite we know that the Pharisees were excellent scourers of the outside of themselves and very prying into the inside of others that they could make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter when yet their own inward parts were full of ravening and all manner of wickedness These could be very precise and strict in smaller matters to the paying tyth of mint and rue and all manner of herbs but passed over judgement and the love of God Luke 11. And the Epicures notwithstanding the luxury and irregularity of their lives could speak of God in the publick Schools of Athens with greater reverence than any other Sect of Philosophers And yet we find in Tully at the latter end of his first Book de Naturâ Deorum that Epicurus retollit oratione relinquit Deos That he could allow those Gods in his Speeches which in reality he denied And whilst there is such a thing as falshood in the world and men may make profession with their tongues of what their minds do not heartily assent to There can be no certain and infallible judgement made from wordy expressions or external gestures nor yet from seeming transports of devotion Tacitus informs us that the Malecontents in Galba's time tristitiam simulabant propiores contumaciae That they counterfeited sorrow when their minds were stubborn And although many men among our selves may have steady brows and fixed eyes and walk with a grave and upright deportment yet privacy may discover to one who observantly converses with them that they are either empty or else frothy and vain Far too many are guilty of that fault which Cicero pretends against Verres Frontem atque oculos mentiri Their foreheads and their eyes speak falshoods Boldness is a common shelter to these things and confidence is almost characteristical to those that are adversaries to our Church prayers so great and large that 't is a rare thing to find modesty enough to hold the tongues of those who have been apparently baffled much less to make their faces blush when their hands were all smeer'd with blood nay so much as to ascend to the Throne with Swords and Staves not to mention what they took thence and most barbarously butchered and after all an Hue and Cry is perpetually sent out after their repentance and yet they hide it that it cannot be found But instead of an acknowledgement of their own guilt they will in despight of the experience of mankind averr their piety to exceed the Religion of other men and from their fondness to themselves infer the kindness of God to them Like that bloody and cruel Tyrant Domitian who painted Jupiter in the Market place with pleasant colours and himself in his bosom though he should have been represented trodden under his feet Strabo indeed tells us that it is impossible to persuade women and the promiscuous multitude to Religion by mere reason and dry Philosophy but that for this there is need of Superstition and this cannot be advanced without Fables and Wonders Geor. lib. 1. Yet the great God whom all Christians pretend to adore never ushered in his Religion into the World but by such Miracles as were real and true But when such a Religion as ours is becomes planted and sufficiently by Miracles beyond all the abilities of natural Causes that we are acquainted with proved to be Divine the rational account that may be given of it it no wise contradicting natural Religion will sufficiently inforce its esteem and exercise without the addition of any new juggles or devices of our own And therefore the Romans that the Religion which they embraced though false in its self might neither suffer by flattery or fraud when the Soothsayers increased so fast in their City made an Order of Senate that none but Gentlemen should practise these matters left so exalted and Divine an art should be degraded from the Majesty of Religion to a baser trade of fraud and cousenage As Tully tells us in his first Book of Divinat And indeed it holds good and rational under the profession of a true Religion more than it could possibly under a false For where as in the daies of Jeroboam the Priesthood is formed out of the meanest of the people they will not scruple to carry wisps of Hay to feed Calves at Dan and Bethel But farther and besides all this we now find Secular interest a most prevailing principle in the minds of men and therefore is it that upon a late and more particular scrutiny we find mens particular Religion stoop to their own personal advantages and the rites and devotions which they ought to exercise in the true profession to be countermanded when injoyn'd by lawful Authority by the profit which attends mens particular Trades and occupations As if because Demetrius and others made silver Shrines for Diana it must presently be concluded that great is Diana of the Ephesians This is the main reason why our Sectaries
Scabb who start in their sleep as if they had gotten Buggs about them and not only delight themselves in dreams but greedily impose the notions of their pillows and the dictates of their disturbed bodies on others When upon a more strict enquiry they may justly attribute all to fancy and the most unaccountable imagination If these things are so our faith certainly is not now less precious nor ought it to be attended with inferiour regard howsoever it may be despised by the ignorant or prophane nor must the Argument of the Council be less valued but more Since this Mystery of iniquity in propagating false Doctrine together with Schism and Rebellion too in extempore prayer is mixed with so much pride in the deliverer and so easily works upon the melted and ductile judgements of the hearers that both are deceived if they are not a little Knavish And when matters are come to this pass I can conclude no less than that if this be permitted the blind will still lead the blind 'till we all fall together into the Ditch when error and mistakes must lead the multitude and triumphantly captivate the minds of the simple which every where are the greatest number But give me leave farther to recommend one consideration more against this extempore and rash way of publick prayer which seems to render it unworthy of the Deity as much as unbecoming men who yet pretend to consider in all things but this And that is because when men offer to the great Majesty of the Universe such unconsidered and unpremeditated devotion they demonstrate to the world that there is but little awe and dread upon their minds of that greatness and power of him to whom they make their Addresses and it must cause strangers to their Religion on to believe that the God whom they worship either does not regard what they offer or else has given them a large liberty to talk to him in what manner they please without danger or punishment to any of them And what a God he will then be concluded to be is obvious to every ones consideration and inference What will an Heathen say in this case but that if the fear of the Gods introduced Religion into the World These men having no fear banish Religion and the Gods together For can that person own the Christians God who in publick evidences so little fear and reverence to him Can he dread the displeasure of his Prince or any other person with whom he converses who values not what he saies to him neither regarding the method or significancy of his words or the phrases by which he represents his mind And can any man who allows himself time to retire and consider with nothing but his own thoughts about him conjecture or be positive in affirming that any dread of the Divine Majesty has made due impressions upon such minds which determining their Spirits to their own tongues speak sudden and unpremeditated language to him This must of necessity very often at least be rash and unadvised Not fit to be presented to so great a God as all describe Jehovah to be Because it will very frequently be accompanied with an indecency of phrase unsoundness of expression or at least an immethodical loose composure He that does but send a message to another especially if he is placed some steps above him will be sure to regard the person of him to whom his errant is directed And to mind the main business which he intends How strangely is he concerned if it be a matter of importance to inform his messenger so well in the affair that after he has invented the most apt and proper expressions he can think on that may comport with the quality nay the very humour of the person to whom he sends and has once delivered them to his own servant or another How frequently will he call him back again to re inform him That the weight of his business may not suffer diminution by any light or unbecoming word That the messenger may not spoil his design or the least failure in expression or behaviour obstruct a compliance And shall mankind who are so cautious in secular affairs have very little or no regard to the language in which they utter their wants and petitions unto the great God in whom we live and move and have our beings From whom also we receive the causes of our perpetual subsistence Nay when we are begging from him such things as are of a most great and everlasting concernment to us which if we do not obtain we are ruin'd and damn'd to all eternity In those affairs that we manage with men about which we are so very solicitous the greatest evil that can befall us by any failing or unfortunate miscarriage can consist only in a prejudice to our estate damage to our health a blot to our reputation an abatement of our pleasures and sensual satisfactions Or at most it can but put a period to our lives and cut the threads which in a few daies would grow rotten and break All which things if we did escape for that present season in which we were in danger we are but for a little space repriev'd Because they will suddenly perish of themselves when the fatal hour snatches us from them and Death summons us to the great Tribunal And shall we think it reasonable to be so careful and big with consideration in the managery of these low concerns amongst men that our secular wishes may obtain their ends and yet be so vain and negligent in relation to the welfare of our immortal souls when we petition the great disposer of all things for such favours which are so important to us that if we fail of their possession when we come to die as certainly we must we shall then exchange our abode in this world for such a torment as is unexpressible and yet shall never that we know of admit of an end or relaxation Certainly such men can have little dread of the Divine Majesty who manage their addresses to this Supreme Being with such strange rashness and inconsideration Especially when their petitions include the great concernments of their own and others souls And are offered to that Almighty power which alone is able to grant their desires This plainly argues that neither the value of the one nor the greatness of the other is much esteemed or regarded by them Be not rash with thy mouth saies Solomon and let not thine heart he hasty to utter any thing before God For God is in heaven and thou on earth therefore let thy words be few Eccl. 5.2 And if this Text by a narrow and subtil interpretation should be restrained to vows only Yet the reason of the thing will be as prevalent in prayer when men on Earth speak to the great God in Heaven For the distance will be still the same betwixt us And our contempt and his revenge no farther off We must not therefore be rash in this
in the midst of the waters Especially over such Fish as carry mony in their mouths If they did not in plain terms endeavour to make parties in the Church that their own may at last appear to be the greatest by whatever under the pretext of Religion conveighs delight by that variety which pleases the generality of mankind Why should they not as well Preach extempore as pray so In their Sermons I am sure they were wont to use all the art and study that they could accommodating their Doctrines and expressions too that their pains might bear proportion to their Auditory and the fashion and example of those who were in greatest repute amongst them And I cannot divine what might be the cause of this different regard to prayer and Preaching unless they had more care in those speeches they directed unto men than they took about those which they presented unto God For they seem to me to have no greater promise of an assistance from Heaven in relation to the one than they have also with reference to the other Do they think that Text in the Eighth to the Romans proves effectually that the Holy Ghost assists them in their prayers because the Apostle has delivered that likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities because we know not what we should pray for as we ought c. If it be well weighed and considered with the Context it will only evidence our Saviours most earnest and wise Intercessions for us in Heaven by the holy Spirit which alwaies accompanies him The support of our minds under the greatest pressures we meet with in this world Or most that the Scripture being dictated by the Spirit has given us directions for the proper heads and â—â—â—â—er of our prayers and resolves still by some benign and secret influence which we are not able to describe to others to proportion our affections and elevate our minds to the importance of the concernments we pray for and the greatness of that Majesty to whom we petition And because if I were the greatest Critick in the world I should alwaies abhor the founding any necessary Doctrine upon the signification of a word in Scripture which words we know as in prophane Authors are frequently equivocal and restrain'd according to the compass of that matter in which they are Therefore I say nothing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no nor concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither But if men are resolved for ends that will not serve them at the day of Judgement to which they refer many things that may be ended here to make these words against their own will in contradiction to the reason and experience of all thinking men that are not either knavish or mad to express a promise of some extraordinary assistance from the Spirit now in our inventions of matter and words in prayer unto God They may as well rely if they are pleased with such waies of interpreting Scripture upon that promise of our Saviour made to the Apostles to enable them to preach and write the Doctrines of the Gospel John 16.13 Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth And because there were Divine inspirations at the first which were necessary if God would deliver a Law by the mouths or writings of any selected out of the race of men Our gifted Brethren may if they please take occasion from the 10th of St. Matthew vers 19th and 20th to attempt any thing without premeditation or study and then to be sure we should be hard enough for them Since our Saviour there informs his Disciples that they need take no thought what or how the should speak because it should be given them in that hour i. e. when they might have occasion And he uses an Argument to raise and to confirm their belief of it For it is not ye that speak saies he but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And yet I fancy that if our extempore men were in the same circumstances and put under those conditions which this Text supposes and were accused of something Capital before a Magistrate they would not only study all waies of clearing themselves to avoid the punishment what ever at last became of the guilt And this they would endeavour by all the means that a close consultation with their own thoughts could possibly suggest and not only with seriousness prepare an answer to any accusation of this nature But I believe too they would condescend to advise with the learned in the Law that they might if possibly avoid the Sentence of the Judge Nay in such cases whether they would fee bribe or make the greatest friends they could I leave to their own Consciences and experience that I may say nothing of making publick commotions to save themselves And as in business of this nature gifted men are inclined to think that such promises of assistance were only intended for a shorter time and not to reach this present age So though the Apostles Acts 2. Being fill'd with the Holy Ghost began to speak with divers languages as the Spirit gave them utterance they will submit their Spirits and condescend to the contrivance of heads of matter and modes of expression when they preach the Gospel though they are to speak in no other than their Mother Tongue Now why should this great care be had in their Sermons to the people when they usually have so slender a regard to what they utter in their prayers to God if there were no distinctions of times and seasons in relation to the promises and assistances of Gods Spirit For surely Preaching as well as praying is an ordinance to continue 'till the Elect are gathered and that will not be till the end of the world Unless they will affirm and give us too apparent an Argument to believe that the Spirit has so ordered matters that less pains and diligence are to be used when we address to God than when we speak only to the people And if any are so bold to talk thus I hate to refute such nonsence and blasphemy both together For it plainly appears that such men must be liable to the same rebuke which the chief Rulers of the Jews received from our Saviour recorded in the Gospel of St. John Chap. 12.43 Who though they believed on him did not confess him because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God And let their ears be never so much circumcised they render themselves opposite to the true circumcision whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.29 And how far such contrivances may comport with sincerity and be distant from that Hypocrisie which has so many woes attending it I shall leave to those who are concerned to adjust and content my self with that direction which the great Authour of our most excellent Religion has