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christian_n	body_n	church_n	society_n	1,721	5	9.2198	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54945	A discourse of prayer wherein this great duty is stated, so as to oppose some principles and practices of Papists and fanaticks; as they are contrary to the publick forms of the Church of England, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament. By Thomas Pittis, D.D. one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. Wherefore, that way and profession in religion, which gives the best directions for it, (viz. prayer) with the most effectual motives to it, and most aboundeth in its observance, hath therein the advantage of all others. Dr. Owen in his preface to his late discourse of the work of the Holy SPirit in prayer, &c.	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2314; ESTC R220541	149,431	404

means ordained for their own preservation CHAP. IX THat I may now draw to a conclusion of this Discourse I think I may justly infer from the whole these three Propositions the exemplifying of which I shall be as brief in as I may at least as short as may comport with the bad times in which we live 1. That the Prayers and Service of our own Church The Church of England Established by the known Laws of the Land are composed and performed in such a manner that God will accept them 2. That the Church of Rome offend him with theirs and is most irrationally and abominably peccant in their devotions And 3. That they who live amongst us and yet strangely separate from us under the shelter and pretence of greater Reformation and a more pure Evangelical Worship do not perform their services unto God in such a manner as is suitable to his Attributes and Worship mans dependance and that infinite distance betwixt their Creator and themselves And so upon the whole it must appear to be an unreasonable service First it may be plainly infer'd That the Church of England embodied with the State allowed and strengthned by civil Sanctions worships God in such a manner as he accepts and offers him such a Spiritual Sacrifice with which he is well pleased that can no way be frustrated of its excellent design but by a neglect in the devotionists or the bad lives of those who pretend thus to worship This will appear though not only from that which our Adversaries are pleased sometimes to call a Club Argument because it is Established by a Royal Christian Assent in Parliament And yet this as it makes for the interest of those who contend with us becomes Sacred though at other times when the advice of Parliaments with their own consent is by the King pass'd into a Law if it contra●icts either their Principles or their Humour and 't is difficult to guess which is the Commander it shall be judged hard or sanguinary or not agreeing with that liberty in which Christ has made us free and a Text uttered at first upon a very far different account shall be as frequently urged as it has been answered We ought to obey God rather than men So that such persons are extremely for Government according to Law when this allows or indulges their Principles and their Practice but conclude it to be unequal and unjust when the same Laws condemn and punish them and they seem to be like a noble Traytor accused and now going to his Trial who walks in state and seemingly with an unconcerned mind nay many times with joy and briskness in his countenance when the back of the Ax is turned towards him but when as he comes back again the edge of the fatal instrument of death looks upon him his face is demure he treads the earth with trembling steps and wishes there had been no Law to condemn him and if he has any sprightliness in his looks his end is only by this significant ceremony to persuade the people that he remains innocent and that the Law is hard by which he is condemned though perhaps before when it served his turn and promotion too nothing was like Government according to Law But to leave this Argument because it may grieve some persons whose principles and zeal are managed suitable to their Secular interest although I fear it must be the effectual reason at last to convince them Let us enquire whether the Prayers and Worship of the Church of England are not to be justified another way This being a publick Worship of Christians Embodied and Constituting the Sacred Society of a Church who with unity of hearts and a suitable uniformity meet together in a place devoted to the service of God and separated from vulgar and profane uses the prayers and service must be allowed by reasonable persons to be such as it ought to be uttered in such general expressions as all may be able to consent unto and say Amen at the close and period And where confessions prayers and thanksgivings are more precisely and particularly managed and he who is the mouth of the Congregation invents his own unallowed prayers and pretends to utter the concernments of all though some may be able to joyn in one part and some in another yet 't is very seldom that any one can consent to all and all perhaps had they time to consider could not give their assent to one period besides those that tell God his own or some general things which are usually declared before he comes to what are called soul searching particulars I have heard of a Quaker who vouchsafing to hear one that was not of his own perswasion and finding that the man who pray'd extempore had laid a great heap of Confessions before him and had been very curious in sorting sins into their several kinds and degrees and uttering all in the name of the Congregation he presently as if he had been used to chop Logick makes his inference in this Dilemma Either this man tells lies or this people are very wicked and resolved to have no more to do with them But another perhaps more severe than he may think his conclusion very reasonable when he supposes and infers that the man prays from his own experience and from his particular defects attributes the same to all mankind and causes a multitude to be partakers of his private sins to petition what he only wants and to give thanks for the benefits which he has received And perhaps upon the consideration of all the mouth of the people may at last be thought the worst member among them all whatever his headship may yet signifie But not to confound Closets with Churches nor yet to grant that a single man can hold a great Congregation in his belly Let us take a prospect of our own Church and see whether we can justifie that without finding faults in others In this we offer up to God all those desires of our minds that are fit for men embodied into a Christian Society and who are partakers of the same Communion We confess the general heads of sin of which all being guilty they can from a short reflection upon themselves truly acknowledge that they have been sharers in And if it should be rendered more particular some only might be guilty and so there would be a Schism in our acknowledgements because all could not give their assent without telling a lie to their Maker and supposing themselves more vile than they are And moreover this way of publick Worship would expose all the professors of Christianity to the contempt of those that are enemies to Religion at least adversaries to that of the Gospel We have also in the Service which the Church of England owns upon our Confession Gods free pardon declared to us in that manner as Christ himself has appointed in his Gospel without such an Auricular confession as may give us Knowledge of the

of the mischievousness and sinfulness of Schism lib. 5. Cap. 21. Schism saies he is a grievous sin 1. Because it is against Charity to our Neighbour 2. B cause it is against the Edification of him who makes the Separation in that he deprives himself of Communion in Spiritual good 3. Because it is against the honor of Christ in that as much as in it lyeth it takes away the Unity of his Mystical Body And 4. It makes way to Heresie and separation from Christ from whence they conclude that Schism is a sin by all good men to be abhor'd Nay if we look into Pag. 112. we shall find that when men separate from what they acknowledge to be a true Church 'T is Schism And to set up a Church against a Church and as the Ancients call'd it Altar against Altar This is the weakning the hands of the Church hindering the glorious work of Reformation causing the building of Gods House to cease and is a Deformation instead of a Reformation Upon such a dismal state and farther prospect of worse times if any could be so within less than a year after the Throne followed the downfal of the Episcopal Church of England these London Ministers gathered together in a Provincial Assembly thus exhort the people Pag. 110. After their being humbled for the evils that so much abounded for which as they say even those in their daies of Reformation the Earth mourned and the Heavens were black over them when they had mourned seriously every one a part Their desire and advice to them is this That you would put away the iniquity that is in your hand That you would be tender of the Oaths which you have taken and those which may be offered to you That you would prize the Publick Ordinances and reverence your Ministers That you would sanctifie the Sabbaths and hate Hypocrisie and self-seeking That you would receive the love of the truth lest God give you over to believe lies That you would not trust to your own understanding lest God blind your understanding That you would conform to the truths you already know that God may discover to you the truths ye do not know That ye would not have such itching ears as to heap to your selves Teachers nor embrace any Doctrines for the persons sake That ye would seek the truth for the truths sake and not for any outward respect That ye would study Catechism more diligently by degrees be led on to perfection And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity These were the excellent exhortations of a Province of Divines then separated from the Episcopal Church of England And why should not such admirable instructions and advice be prevalent in this paper since they are transcribed from their own To conclude therefore in the language of this Provincial Assembly If we are a true Church of Christ which the late Doctrine of occasional Communion sufficiently proves and Christ holdeth Communion with us why do any separate from us If we are the Body of Christ do not they who separate from the Body separate from the Head also If the Apostle calls those divisions in the Church of Corinth by the name of Schisms 1 Cor. 1.10 Though Christians there did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper May not your Secession from us and the profession that you cannot join with us as members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schisms Especially when Churches were gathered out of Churches as this Provincial Assembly there complains If any are willing to see more of this let them peruse the Book And the good God give us all a right understanding in all things FINIS

●hildren kneeled down and pray●● 〈◊〉 though they were upon the shore ●●ct 21.5 And certainly we cannot possibly offend whilst we imitate such holy and primitive examples 'T is true indeed it was a custom amongst the Jews especially towards the period of their Oeconomy to pray standing in the Synagogues and therefore we read that the Pharisees like some among our selves loved to pray standing in their Synagogues as well as in the corners of the streets Math. 6.5 But because these did it that by the elevation of their bodies they might be seen of men you may not perhaps think it fitting to take such for an example But howsoever it is no less but more certain that the primitive Christians did sometimes pray standing on their feet as well as kneeling upon their knees For besides the posture in their devotions on the Lords day it is notoriously known that they did not kneel in their publick worship from Easter to Whitsuntide But then they gave these two reasons in excuse of their posture 1. That they might by some outward gesture and significant ceremony express their joy for the resurrection of our Saviour 2. That it was in token also of their confident expectation of the descent of the Holy Ghost Both these things were lawful and proper whilst Christianity was contemned by the Rulers of the world and such great temptations were given to the proselytes to this religion to apostatize That I may draw then towards the conclusion of this particular since the gestures of the body have been differently used in prayer unto God suitable to the various wayes of signifying respect in divers Countries and the constitutions of those Churches to whose customs men subjected themselves and since all such things are still to be used in subordination to a greater and more lofty end the raising and testifying the affections and faith of mens minds I shall leave you to practise Saint Austins rules That in private prayer ye so frame the gestures of your bodies as may best conduce to the elevation of your minds and the continuance of great devotion in your prayers But in publick that ye conform to the commands and practice of that Christian Church which imposes nothing sinful as a condition of her communion within whose pale you are inclosed that ye may not become factious and schismatical divide from substantials for a ceremony nor rend the Church and make a separation for what is really in it self indifferent Humility and reverence do certainly become such as address themselves to God and he that has lived here among us that upon the view of our usual approaches to our superiours and the custom of the nation in their addresses to one another can find another gesture more aptly and decently expressing these things than bowing the body uncovering the head and bending the knee may if our superiors please who have authority to order indifferent matters use it and recommend it to others Nay obtain a Law to force it upon all Yet this will be but little to their profit since I know none that upon such slender terms will relinquish their own right to make way for others to enter their possessions because they will not make religion to consist in the use or forbearance of things that are indifferent in themselves But howsoever till this time of tryal comes we were in my judgment better fulfill what God once confirmed by an Oath That unto him every knee should bow and every tongue should swear by his name Isai 45.23 Which Saint Paul thought good to express the subjection of mankind to the supream Being by in the New Testament As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Rom. 14.11 And truly when any good Christians pretend to express their real and devout subjection to God 't is not so well to forsake the ceremony which God himself the command of the Church and the reason of men using the ceremonies of this Nation especially when it is conjoyned with custom may render not only lawful but expedient But yet I must proceed farther That with the former circumstances supposed kneeling at prayers will become a duty where the formentioned impediments do not plead for a necessary and unavoidable dispensation 'T is true indeed that bodily exercise profiteth little yet something it does if not conjoyned with the devotion of the mind and does not tend to the improvement of the soul in the habits of vertue and true religion But when this accomplishes the ends to which it is most rationally designed it then becomes such a sacrifice with which God is well pleased I beseech you therefore brethren as St. Paul exhorts by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable divine service Rom. 12. 1. Nay we do not worship with the whole man when we neglect Gods service with a part Moreover it seems not to be a reasonable service when the actions of the body do not accompany the affections of the mind when both are joyn'd together in this world We think it to be rational to express the petitions conceived in our hearts by the language of our tongues Why should we not then signifie our humility that must accompany such prayers as God accepts by those gestures that represent and express it 'T is exceeding natural to mankind to make shew of their inward affection by external signs and the kindest demonstrations that the actions of their bodies are able to represent and we put a force and restraint upon our selves when our hearts are full of fervour and devotion and yet we will not manifest it by our actions and deportments But certainly he who has created the bodies of men as well as their souls has an equal right to the service of both and he that made the whole man will not be satisfied with a partial sacrifice we must worship therefore and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Our redemption also no less calls for the homage of our bodies than it does for the reverence and devotion of our souls The Apostle sayes Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your spirits which are Gods 1. Cor. 6.20 Nay if we expect the final glorification of both 't is but equal that they should both conspire in all the demonstrations of vertue and religion where both may contribute their several parts That so since their interest is united they may in conjunction work out their salvation with fear and trembling Lastly The humble and decent postures of our bodies when we address our selves to God do not only demonstrate the internal devotion and reverence of our minds but according to the observation of all excepting such as are unwilling to make the experiment they excite and continue our internal affections recall our wandrings and put us in remembrance of what we are about if

they are uttered For since all our expressions in prayer are not only to raise our devotions suitable to the conceptions of our minds but they are also designed to signifie the wishes and desires of our souls 't is reasonable that both should run parallel and our expressions equal our wants and necessities or else our language cannot answer the design of uttering words in prayer I cannot deny but that sometimes the inward conceptions of men in private may be too big for their mouths to express and there a sigh or a groan may prevail with God for what the tongue is not able fully to utter There as the Reverend Dr. Owen more clearly expresses it they may mourn as a Dove or chatter as a Crane and he sayes 't is sufficient in that condition But in publick prayers when one becomes the Orator for the rest petitions ought to be framed so as to express the general wants of those that are present as Christians united into one body being members in particular of that society of which Christ himself is the head that all may be concerned in such common requests and joyn together with one heart and with one soul and with undivided affections say Amen at the close and period But yet Fourthly Our words in prayer must be as few and our petitions as brief as may consist with plainness and perspicuity Not only because what is over and beyond this seems redundant and to no purpose and therefore unreasonable nor only because a tedious protraction and unnecessary length in devotion dulls the spirits and makes our affections unactive and stupid it quenching the fervor and intention of our minds and turns much of our prayer all whilst we remain thus indisposed into meer babble and effusion of words when our minds cannot accompany our expressions or the language of another uttered in our behalf But as we have no example of a tedious and long prayer in the Scriptures so have we prohibitions and arguments against it Solomon exhorting to external signs of reverence and devotion when men go to the house of God Be not rash with thy mouth sayes he and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in heaven and thou on earth therefore let thy words be few Ecclesiast 5.1 2. And if any one should unreasonably restrain this Text only to the subsequent vow yet the argument urged why men should be then sparing of their words will as well conclude in prayer as in vows in both which things we speak to such a God as is in heaven whilst we stand at a distance on the earth Our Saviours advice in his Sermon on the Mount is when thou prayest use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking And he presently gives his own Disciples the form of a full and most expressive prayer Mat. 6 7. Nay if we will be inclined by his own example which any would think that Christians ought even then when by the circumstances he was in an enemy to his religion would conclude him to be devout being fill'd with pain and fear of farther tortures that attended him when he was in an agony so great that his sweat was as it were large glutinous drops of blood when as S. Matthew sayes his soul was sorrowful even unto death and S. Luke tells us that he prayed more earnestly Even then we find his words to be no more than these Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done Luke 22.42 Nor did the earnestness of his strong desire force his thoughts to break out into a flood of expressions but allowing himself some small intervals continuing his devotion he returned to his prayer repeating again the same words Matth. 26.44 But I shall speak more of these Texts hereafter To proceed therefore to shew that brevity is an ornament to our prayers the very nature and usual custom of petitions will bring a sufficient convincing testimony to all those who have not very odd conceptions of the object to whom they make religious addresses These by the reason of men are then judged to be best drawn when they include brevity and fulness of matter and the shorter do we usually frame them by how much the greater the person is to whom they are to be presented And the reason of this may possibly be not only because the serious affairs of great men that are in publick employments will not permit much diversion but for that they are presumed to be wise and discerning able to understand quicker than those who are placed in a more vulgar station A breviat may be sufficient to inform some men when others must be largely instructed from point to point and must have things variously diversified and often reiterated before they will suit with their apprehensions And shall we think the Omniscient God who knows our wants before we petition to be less intelligent or compassionate than men that he stands in need of so many words and variety of expressions to cause him to understand or to incline him to grant what is convenient for us But this will be treated of in a larger manner in the Inferences from the whole discourse And therefore this head shall be concluded with a brief answer to one plea which may be made for a long continued prayer The objection is that our Saviour was engaged all night in prayer Luke 6.12 and some other expressions and examples too we have in the Scriptures that may import and signifie some length in prayer But if we consider them and were either upon extraordinary occasions or so circumstantiated that they differed exceedingly from our present state and cannot be a pattern unto us Or else when Christ or his Apostles continued long in prayer by giving themselves short respits and allowing some intervals between they returned to the same prayers again which might be short enough for all the objection Yet when we have the same Spirit and measures of assistance with such authority and revelations as the had and fall under their circumstances which can never be their extraordinary practice may become a copy for our imitation In the mean time since it is most suitable to the reason of prayer with reference to God a greeable to our natural and unavoidable infirmities and that infinite distance betwixt our Maker and our selves it is fitting that our prayers should be as brief and short as may consist with plainness and perspicuity And therefore Lastly Upon the view of all this it is convenient and for the most part necessary too that both the matter and expressions of our prayers should be fixed and premeditated For if our words in prayer ought to be plain and intelligible if they must be both grave and serious if they ought to be full in the expression of our wants and if they must be as brief and short

he has a brow of brass may say to those who understand not or else never look'd into their allowed Breviary or their common and established Mass-Book that we charge them with what they are not guilty of I must instance in a few particulars in which prayers are made to glorified creatures and to some inanimate things too in the publick Offices of the Roman Church since some of the professors of that Religion are so bold and apparently wicked that to serve a turn they will affirm 't is dark in the face of the Sun and light even in the midst of darkness and nothing almost according to their principles of equivocation and mental reservation if they take also the Doctrine of probable opinions in to their assistance can be propounded but they may either affirm or deny as it makes for the advantage of their Church Nay they are bound according to the determination of Bellarmin to say that Vertue is Vice or Vice Vertue if the Pope so concludes either But yet my present charge is so apparently true that all must own it to any that have knowledge of their publick Service whatever they may at any time reply to the ignorant that receive the charge upon the authority of others For in their Commune Apostolorum there is an Hymn consisting both of prayer and praise in which we find these expressions Vos saecli justi judices c. speaking to the Apostles they say O ye just Judges and Lights of the world we beseech you with the desires of our hearts to hear the prayers of your supplicants ye that shut the heavens with a word and unlock them again loose us we pray you from all our sins by your command you to whose authority is subject both the health and misery of all c. In their Office to the Blessed Virgin you have these expressions O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death And let the Virgin Mary together with her off-spring bestow her blessing upon us and the like I shall instance yet in one more although many know I might translate a multitude of the same nature into this Discourse and that shall be in the service relating to one who was the Founder of one of the most pernicious Sects that ever infested the Christian world in comparison to many of whom the Gnosticks were Saints the Goths and Vandals were of a Religious Order the Great Turk becomes a Christian and the wild Fanatick is temperate and mild I mean Ignatius Loyola who founded the first Society of the Jesuits to perplex and confound the Councils of Princes and carry on mischievous designs against us as well by those who have been at the top as those that remain at the bottom of the Ladder In the Service at the Celebration of his Festival there is this Prayer or Collect on the one and thirtieth day of July O God! who for the greater propagation of thy glory hast strengthened thy Church militant properly so indeed under the command of a Jesuit with a new aid by blessed Ignatius grant that we who strive or fight on earth by the imitation and help of him may deserve with him to be crowned in the heavens And if they all deserve the same lot may they together possess the same place for fear they should be as troublesome to us in the other world as they have been in this But I will no longer employ my self in translating their prayers Many instances of their petitions to Saints and Angels have been exposed to view in most Books that have been by Protestants written against them I heartily wish that those who use such prayers understood them better because they would then more easily see how poyson is wrap'd in gilded pills Why should I relate the Attributes which the Church of Rome gives to the Cross of Christ as great as to him who suffered on it and yet have no method to shift their blasphemy but by the same way in which they translate their prayers and praises too from the Cross to him who died upon it And though I love not to pursue a Lion to his den for fear that being weary he may be hungry too and take some opportunity to rend and devour Yet it would be a strange expression from a Protestants mouth that which must needs grate upon the ears of all the devout worshippers of God and such as believe that their prayers are heard only through the merits and intercession of Christ Sancta Crux or a pro nobis Holy Cross pray for us And Ave Crux spes unica Hail Cross our only hope would be words that to us would not only seem ridiculous but abominable and if at all considered to any that hope in the mercy of God through him who suffer'd and dyed upon the Cross But notwithstanding all these are things as common with the Papists as whining and another sort of nonsence are among some Separatists that pretend to set themselves at the greatest distance from them Nay any may see if they have skill and leisure to peruse it in an office of or relating to the Holy Cross Printed at Paris 1664. by publick authority such strange expressions as these are After it has begun with a Prayer to God to free men from their enemies by the Sign of the Cross which if we should make a thousand times upon our selves we should hardly be quit from those that are so devout to it we find afterwards these expressions O Crux venerabilis c. I know not how they may edifie in Latin but I am sure that they sound harsh in English and good or bad thus they run O venerable Cross who hast brought salvation to us miserable with what praises shall I extoll thee because thou hast prepared heavenly life for us And in the close of another Hymn the style tho' a new one is in these words O victory of the Cross and admirable sign make us to triumph in the Celestial Court or the Court of Heaven But this is an ungrateful task to me thus to transcribe the most abominable Popish Prayers and as unpleasant as it can be to Protestants to read it And therefore I shall not fill these Papers with those particular addresses which many of them make to individual Saints as they account them who are departed this life for particular things which they suppose to be in the power of them singly to bestow whilst they appropriate one faculty to one and a second to another whilst they constitute a first to be a Patron to their Horses another to their Sheep a third to their Hoggs and another to keep off some Disease from themselves or at least to cure it And so they make them Grooms or Farriers or Swiniards or Shepherds or Physicians or Mountebanks or what they please For I am weary of raking in such a dunghill in which there is neither Barley-corn nor Jewel