therefore represented plurally and the place is very extrinsecall to the nature of prayer I will that men pray every where lifting up pure hands and retiring into a Closet is onely advised for the avoiding of hypocrisie not for the greater excellency of the duty So that if publick Prayer have advantages beyond private Prayer or upon its own stock besides it the more publick influences it receives the more excellent it is And hence I conclude that set Formes of Prayer compos'd and used by the Church I mean by the Rulers in Conjunction and Union of Heads and Councells and used by the Church I mean the People in Union and society of Hearts in Spirits hath two very great advantages which other Prayers have not For first it is more truly publick and hath the benefit sect. 101 of those helps which God who never is deficient to supply any of our needs gives to publick persons in order to publick necessities by which I mean its emanation from a publick and therefore a more excellent spirit And secondly it is the greatest instance of union in the world for since God hath made Faith Hope and Charity the ligaments of the communion of Saints and Common prayer which not onely all the Governours have propounded as most fit but in which all the people are united is a great Testimony of the same Faith and a common hope and mutuall charity because they confesse the same God whom they worship and the same Articles which they recite and labour towards the same hope the mighty price of their high calling and by praying for each other in the same sense and to the same purpose doing the same to them that I desire they should doe for me doe testifie and preserve and increase their charity it followes that common and described prayers are the most excellent instrument and act and ligament of the Communion of Saints and the great common terme of the Church in its degrees of Catholike capacity And therefore saith S. Ignatius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} All meet together and joyne to common Prayers {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} let there be one minde and let there be one prayer That 's the true Communion of Christians And in pursuance of this I consider that if all Christian sect. 102 Churches had one common Lyturgie there were not a greater symbol to testifie nor a greater instrument to preserve the Catholick Communion and when ever a Schisme was commenc'd and that they call'd one another Heretick they not onely forsook to pray with one another but they also altered their Formes by interposition of new Clauses and Hymnes and Collects and new Rites and Ceremonies onely those parts that combin'd kept the same Lyturgie indeed the same Formes of Prayer were so much the instrument of Union that it was the onely ligament of their Society for their Creeds I reckon as part of their Lyturgie for so they ever were so that this may teach us a little to guesse I will not say into how many Churches but into how many innumerable atomes and minutes of Churches those Christians must needes be scattered who alter their Formes according to the number of persons and the number of their meetings every company having a new Forme of Prayer at every convention And this consideration will not be vaine if we remember how great a blessing unity in Churches is and how hard to be kept with all the arts in the world and how every thing is powerfull enough for its dissolution But that a publick Forme of Lyturgie was the great instrument of Communion in the Primitive Church appeares in this that the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or excōmunication was an exclusion à communicatione orationis conventus omnis sancti commercii from the participation of the publick meeting and Prayers and therefore the more united the Prayer is still it is the greater instrument of Union the Authority and Consent the publick Spirit and common Acceptation are so many degrees of a more firme and indissoluble Communion 3. To this I adde that without prescribed Formes issues sect. 103 of the publick Spirit and Authority publick Communion cannot be regular and certain as may appear in one or two plain instances It is a practise prevailing among those of our Brethren that are zealous for ex tempore or not enjoyned Prayers to pray their Sermons over to reduce their Doctrine into Devotion and Lyturgie I mislike it not for the thing it self if it were regularly for the manner and the matter alwayes pious true But who shall assure me when the Preacher hath disputed or rather dogmatically decreed a point of predestination or of prescience of contingency or of liberty or any of the most mysterious parts of Divinity and then prayes his Sermon over that he then prayes with the Spirit Unlesse I be sure that he also Preached with the Spirit I cannot be sure that he Prayes with the Spirit for all he prayes ex tempore Nay if I hear a Protestant preach in the Morning and an Anabaptist in the Afternoone to day a Presbyterian to morrow an Independent am I not most sure that when they have preached contradictories and all of them pray their Sermons over that they do not all pray with the Spirit More then one in this case cannot pray with the Spirit possibly all may pray against him 4. From whence I thus argue in behalfe of set formes sect. 104 of prayer That in the case above put how shall I or any man else say Amen to their prayers that preach and pray Contradictories At least I am much hindered in my devotion For besides that it derives our opinions into our devotions makes every School-point become our Religion and makes God a party so farre as we can intit'ling him to our impertinent wranglings Besides this I say while we should attend to our addresses towards God we are to consider whether the point be true or no and by that time we have tacitely discours'd it we are upon another point which also perhaps is as questionable as the former and by this time our spirit of devotion is a little discompos'd and something out of countenance there is so much other imployment for the spirit the spirit of discerning and judging All which inconveniences are avoided in Set formes of Liturgy For we know beforehand the conditions of our communion and to what we are to say Amen to which if we like it we may repaire if not there is no harme done your devotion shall not be surpriz'd nor your communion invaded as it may be often in your ex tempore prayers and unlimited devotions 5. And this thing hath another collaterall inconvenience sect. 105 which is of great consideration for upon what confidence can we sollicite any Recusants to come to our Church where we cannot promise them that the devotions there to be used shall be innocent nor can we put
Nothing can be regular and orderly that is hasty and precipitate and therefore unlesse Religion be the most imprudent trifling and inconsiderable thing and that the worke of the Lord is done well enough when it is done negligently or that the sanctuary hath the greatest beauty when it hath the least order it will concerne us highly to thinke our prayers and religious offices are actions fit for wise men and therefore to be done as the actions of wise men use to be that is deliberately prudently and with greatest consideration Well then in the nature of the thing ex tempore sect. 12 formes have much the worse of it But it is pretended that there is such a thing as the gift of prayer a praying with the spirit Et nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia Gods Spirit if he pleases can doe his worke as well in an instant as in long premeditation And to this purpose are pretended those places of Scripture which speak of the assistance of Gods spirit in our prayers Zech. 12. 10. And I will poure upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Hierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication But especially Rom. 8. 26. likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered c. From whence the Conclusion that is inferred is in the words of Saint Paul that we must pray with the Spirit therefore not with set formes therefore ex tempore The Collection is somewhat wild for there is sect. 13 great independency in the severall parts and much more is in the Conclusion then was virtually in the premises But such as it is the Authours of it I suppose will owne it And therefore we will examine the maine designe of it and then consider the particular meanes of its perswasion quoted in the Objection It is one of the Priviledges of the Gospel and the sect. 14 benefit of Christ's ascension that the Holy Ghost is given unto the Church and is become to us the fountain of gifts and graces But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our naturall faculties of our art and industry not extraordinary miraculous and immediate infusions of habits and gifts That without Gods spirit we cannot pray aright that our infirmities need his help that we know not what to aske of our selves is most true and if ever any Heretick was more confident of his owne naturalls or did ever more undervalue Gods grace than the Pelagian did yet he denies not this but what then therefore without study without art without premeditation without learning the Spirit gives the gift of prayer and it is his grace that without any naturall or artificiall help makes us pray ex tempore no such thing the Objection proves nothing of this 15. Here therefore we will joyne issue whether the sect. 15 gifts and helps of the Spirit be immediate infusions of the faculties and powers and perfect abilities Or that he doth assist us onely by his aides externall and internall in the use of such meanes which God and nature hath given to man to ennoble his soule better his faculties and to improve his understanding That the aides of the Holy Ghost are onely assistances to us in the use of naturall and artificiall meanes I will undertake to prove and from thence it will evidently follow that labour and hard study and premeditation will soonest purchase the gift of prayer and ascertaine us of the assistance of the Spirit and therefore set Formes of Prayer studied and considered of are in a true and proper sense and without Enthusiasme the fruits of the Spirit First Gods Spirit did assist the Apostles by waies extraordinary sect. 16 and fit for the first institution of Christianity but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately Thus the Holy Ghost brought to their Memory all sect. 17 things which Iesus spake and did and by that meanes we come to know all that the Spirit knew to be necessary for us the Holy Ghost being Authour of our knowledge by being the fountaine of the Revelation and we are therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} taught by God because the Spirit of God revealed the Articles of our Religion that they might be known to all ages of the Church and this is testified by S. Paul he gave some Apostles and some Prophets c. for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the of Son God unto a perfect man c. This was the effect of Christ's ascension when he gave gifts unto men that is when he sent the Spirit the verification of the promise of the Father The effect of this immission of the Holy Ghost was to fill all things and that for ever to build up the Church of God untill the day of consummation so that the Holy Ghost abides with the Church for ever by transmitting those revelations which he taught the Apostles to all Christians in succession Now as the Holy Ghost taught the Apostles and by them still teaches us what to believe so it is certaine he taught the Apostles how and what to pray and because it is certaine that all the rules concerning our duty in prayer and all those graces which we are to pray for are transmitted to us by Derivation from the Apostles whom the Holy Ghost did teach even to that very purpose also that they should teach us it follows evidently that the gift of prayer is a gift of the Holy Ghost and yet to verifie this Proposition we need no other immediate inspiration or extraordinary assistance than that we derive from the Holy Ghost by the conveyance of the Apostolicall Sermons and Writings The reason is the same in Faith and Prayer and if sect. 18 there were any difference in the acquisition or reception faith certainly needs a more immediate infusion as being of greatest necessity and yet a grace to which we least cooperate it being the first of graces and lesse of the will in it then any other But yet the Holy Ghost is the Authour of our faith and we believe with the Spirit it is Saint Paul's expression and yet our belief comes by hearing and reading the holy Scriptures and their interpretations Now reconcile these two together Faith comes by hearing and yet is the gift of the Spirit and it saies that the gifts of the Spirit are not extasies and immediate infusions of habits but helps from God to enable us upon the use of the meanes of his owne appointment to believe to speake to understand to prophesie and to pray But whosoever shall looke for any other gifts of the sect. 19 Spirit besides the parts of nature
reason is to be trusted before the private when there is a contestation the Church being prior potior in promissis she hath a greater and priour title to the Spirit And why the Church hath not the spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her Children I desire once for all to be satisfied upon true grounds either of reason or revelation And if she have whether she have not as much as any single person If she have but as much then there is as much reason in respect of the divine assistance that the Church should make the forms as that any single Minister should and more reason in respect of order and publike influence and care and charge of soules but if she have a greater portion of the Spirit than a single person that is if the whole be greater then the part or the publike better than the private then it is evident that the spirit of the Church in respect of the divine assistance is chiefly and in respect of order is onely to be relied upon for publike provisions and formes of prayer But now if the Church in her united capacity makes sect. 70 prayers for the people they cannot be supposed to be other than limited and determined formes for it is not practicable or indeed imaginable that a Synod of Church Governours be they who they will so they be of Christs appointment should meet in every Church and pray as every man list their Counsels are united and their results are Conclusions and finall determinations which like generall propositions are applicable to particular instances so that 1 since the Spirit being the great Dictatour of holy prayers and 2 the Spirit is promised to the Church in her united capacity and 3 in proportion to the Assembly caeteris paribus so are measures of the Spirit powred out and 4 when the Church is assembled the Prayers which they teach the People are limited and prescribed formes it followes that limited and prescribed formes are in all reason emanations from the greatest portion of the Spirit warranted by speciall promises which are made to every man there present that does his duty as a private member of the Christian Church and are due to him as a Ruler of the Church and yet more especially and in a further degree to all them met together where if ever the holy Spirit gives such helps and graces which relate to the publike government and have influence upon the communities of Christians that is will blesse their meeting and give them such assistances as will enable them to do the work for which they convene But yet if any man shall say What need the Church sect. 71 meet in publike Synods to make formes of Prayer when private Ministers are able to doe it in their severall Parishes I answer it is true many can but they cannot doe it better then a Councell and I think no man is so impudent as to say he can doe it so well however quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet the matter is of publike concernment and therefore should be of publike consultation the advantages of publikely describ'd formes I shall afterwards specifie In the mean time 5. As the Church I mean the Rulers of the Church sect. 72 are appointed Presidents of religious rites and as the Rulers in conjunction are enabled to doe it best by the advantages of speciall promises and double portions of the Spirit so she alwayes did practise this either in conjunction or by single dictate by publick persons or united authority but in all times as necessity required they prescribed set Formes of Prayer If I should descend to minutes and particulars I sect. 37 could instance in the behalf of set Formes that 1. God prescribed to Moses a set Forme of Prayer and benediction to be used when he did blesse the people 2. That Moses composed a Song or Hymne for the children of Israel to use to all their generations 3. That David composed many for the service of the Tabernacle and every company of singers was tyed to certain Psalmes as the very titles intimate and the Psalmes were such limited and determinate prescriptions that in some Gods Spirit did bind them to the very number of the Letters and order of the Alphabet 4. That Solomon and the holy Kings of Judah brought them in and continued them in the ministration of the Temple 5. That in the reformation by Hezekiah the Priests and Levites were commanded to praise the Lord in the words of David Asaph 6. That all Scripture is written for our learning and since all these and many more set Formes of Prayer are left there upon record it is more then probable that they were left there for our use and devotion and certainly it is as lawfull and as prudent to pray Scriptures as to read Scriptures and it were well if we would use our selves to the expression of Scripture and that the language of God were familiar to us that we spake the words of Canaan not the speech of Ashdod and time was when it was thought the greatest Ornament of a spirituall Person and instrument of a religious Conversation but then the consequents would be that these Prayers were the best Formes which were in the words of Scripture and those Psalmes and Prayers there recorded were the best devotions but these are set Formes 7. To this purpose I could instance in the example of Saint John Baptist who taught his Disciples a Forme of Prayer And that Christs Disciples begged the same favour and it was granted as they desired it And here I mean to fix a little for this ground cannot sect. 74 fail us I say Christ prescribed a set Form of Prayer to be used by all his Disciples as a Breviary of Prayer as a rule of their devotions as a repository of their needes and as a direct addresse to God For in this Prayer God did not onely command us to make our Prayers as Moses was bid to make the Tabernacle after the patterne which God shewed him in the Mount and * Christ shewed his Apostles but he hath given us the very tables written with his own hand that we should use them as they are so delivered this Prayer was not onely a precedent and pattern but an instance of addresse a perfect forme for our practice as well as imitation For 1. When Christ was upon the Mount he gave it for sect. 75 a patterne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} So pray ye or after this manner which if we expound onely to the sense of becomming a pattern or a Directory it is observable that it is not onely Directory for the matter but for the manner too and if we must pray with that matter and in that manner what does that differ from praying with that forme however it is well enough that it becomes a precedent to us in any sense and the Church may vary her
canendis haberi Domini Apostolorum documenta utilia praecepta And the Church obeyed them for as an Ancient Author under the name of Dionysius Areopagita relates the chief of the Clericall and Ministring Order offer bread upon the Altar Cum Ecclesiastici omnes laudem hymnumque generalem Deo tribuerint cum quibus Pontifex sacras preces ritè perficit c. They all sing one Hymne to God and then the Bishop prayes ritè according to the rituall or constitution which in no sense of the Church or of Grammar can be understood without a solemne and determin'd forme {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Casaubon is cantare idem saepiùs dicere apud Graecos {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they were formes of praising God used constantly periodically and in the daily Offices And the Fathers of the Councell of Antioch complaine against Paulus Samosatenus Quod Psalmos cantus qui ad Domini nostri Jesu Christi honorem decantari solent tanquam recentiores à viris recentioris memoriae editos exploserit The quarrell was that he said the Church had used to say Hymnes which were made by new men and not deriv'd from the Ancients which if we consider that the Councell of Antioch was in the 12 year of Gallienus the Emperour 133 years after Christs Ascension will fairly prove that the use of prescrib'd Formes of Prayer Hymnes and formes of Worshipping were very early in the Church and it is unimaginable it should be otherwise when we remember the Apostolicall precept before mentioned And if we fancy a higher precedent than what was manifested upon earth we may please to see one observ'd to have been made in Heaven for a set forme of Worship and addresse to God was recorded by Saint John and sung in Heaven and it was composed out of the Songs of Moses Exod. 15. of David Psal. 145. and of Jeremy Chapt. 10. 6 7. which certainly is a very good precedent for us to imitate although but revealed to Saint John by way of vision and extasie that we may see if we would speak with the tongue of Men and Angels we could not praise God in better Formes then what are recorded in holy Scripture But besides the metricall part the Apostle hath described sect. 90 other parts of Lyturgie in Scripture whose composition though it be in determined forme of words yet not so bound up with numbers as Hymnes and these Saint Paul calls supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks which are severall manners of addresse distinguish'd by their subject matter by their forme and manner of addresse As appears plainly by intercessions and giving of thanks the other are also by all men distinguish'd though in the particular assignment they differ but the distinction of the Words implies the distinction of Offices which together with the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Lectionarium of the Church the Books of the Apostles and Prophets spoken of by Justin Martyr and said to be used in the Christian Congregations are the constituent parts of Liturgy and the exposition of the words we best learn from the practise of the Church who in all Ages of whose publike offices any record is left to us tooke their pattern from these places of Scripture the one for Prose the other for Verse and if we take Liturgy into its severall parts or members we cannot want something to apply to every one of the words of Saint Paul in these present allegations For the offices of prose we find but small mention of sect. 91 them in the very first time save onely in generall termes and that such there were and that S. James S. Marke Saint Peter and others of the Apostles and Apostolicall men made Liturgies and if these which we have at this day were not theirs yet they make probation that these Apostles left others or else they were impudent people that prefixed their names so early and the Churches were very incurious to swallow such a bole if no pretension could have been reasonably made for their justification But concerning Church Hymnes we have clearer testimony in particular both because they were many of them and because they were dispersed more soone got by heart passed also among the people and were pious arts of the Spirit whereby holy things were instilled into their Soules by the help of phansie and a more easie memory The first civilizing of people used to be by Poetry and their Divinity was conveyed by Songs and Verses and the Apostle exhorted the Christians to exhort one another in Psalmes and Hymnes for he knew the excellent advantages were likely to accrue to Religion by such an insinuation of the mysteries Thus Saint Hilary and Saint Ambrose composed Hymnes for the use of the Church and Saint Austin made a Hymne against the Schisme of Donatus which Hymnes when they were publikely allowed of were used in publike Offices not till then For Paulus Samosatenus had brought Women into the Church to sing vaine and trifling Songs and some Bishops took to themselves too great and incurious a license and brought Hymnes into the Church whose gravity and piety was not very remarkeable upon occasion of which the Fathers of the Councell of Laodicea ordained {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} No Psalmes of private composition must be brought into the Church so Gentian Hervet renders it Isidore Translates it Psalmos ab Idiotis compositos Psalmes made by common persons Psalms usually sung abroad so Dionysius Exiguus calls them Psalmos Plebeios but I suppose by the following words is meant That none but Scripture Psalmes shall be read there for so the Canon adds {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nothing to be read in the Church but Books of the Old and New Testament And this Interpretation agrees well enough with the occasion of the Canon which I now mentioned This onely by the way the reddition of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sect. 92 by Isidore to be Psalmes made by common persons whom the Scripture calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ignorant or unlearned is agreeable enough with that of Saint Paul who intimates that Prayers and formes of Lyturgies are to be composed for them not by them they were never thought of to be persons competent to make Formes of Prayers themselves For Saint Paul speakes of such a one as of a person comming into the Church to hear the Prophets pray and sing and interpret and prophecy and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he is reproved of all and judged of all and therefore the most unfit person in the world to bring any thing that requires great ability and great authority to obtrude it upon the Church his Rulers and his Judges And this was not unhandsomely intimated by the word sometimes used by the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of