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A63653
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An apology for authorized and set forms of litvrgie against the pretence of the spirit 1. for ex tempore prayer : 2. formes of private composition.
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Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing T289; ESTC R7631
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60,949
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100
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most imperfect memories might retaine and use it And it is not amisse to observe that our blessed Saviour sect. 82 first taught this Prayer to be as a remedy and a reproof of the vaine repetition of the Pharisees and besides that is was so à priori we also in the event see the excellent spirit and wisdome in the Constitution for those persons who have laid aside the Lords Prayer have been noted by common observation to be very long in their forms and troublesome and vaine enough in their repetitions they have laid aside the medicine and the old wound bleeds afresh the Pharisees did so of old And after all this it is strange imployment that any sect. 83 man should be put to justifie the wisdome and prudence of any of Christs institutions as if any of his servants who are wise upon his Stock instructed by his Wisdom made knowing by his Revelations and whose all that is good is but a weak ray of the glorious light of the Sun of Righteousnes should dare to think that the Derivative should be before the Primitive the current above the Fountain and that we should derive all our excellency from him and yet have some beyond him that is some which he never had or which he was not pleased to manifest or that we should have a spirit of prayer able to make productions beyond his Prayer who received the Spirit without measure But this is not the first time man hath disputed against God And now let us consider with sobriety not onely of sect. 84 this excellent Prayer but of all that are deposited in the primitive records of our Religion Are not those Prayers and Hymnes in holy Scripture excellent compositions admirable instruments of devotion full of piety rare and incomparable addresses to God Dare any man with his gift of Prayer pretend that he can ex tempore or by study make better Who dares pretend that he hath a better spirit than David had or than the Apostles and Prophers and other holy persons in Scripture whose Prayers and Psulmes are by Gods Spirit consigned to the use of the Church for ever Or will it be denied but that they also are excellent Directories and Patterns for prayer And if Patterns the nearer we draw to our example are not the imitations and representments the better And what then if we tooke the Samplers themselves Is there any imperfection in them and can we mend them and correct the Magnificat The very matter of these and the Authour no lesse then Divine cannot but justifie the Formes though set determin'd and prescribed In a just proportion and commensuration I argue so sect. 85 concerning the primitive and ancient formes of Church service which are composed according to those so excellent Patterns which if they had remained pure as in their first institution or had alwaies bin as they have been reformed by the Church of England they would against all defiance put in for the next place to those formes of Liturgy which mutatis mutandis are nothing but the words of Scripture But I am resolved at this present not to enter into Question concerning the matter of Prayers Next we must enquire what the Apostles did in obedience sect. 86 to the precept of Christ and what the Church did in imitation of the Apostles That the Apostles did use the Prayer their Lord taught them I think need not much be questioned they could have no other end of their desire and it had been a strange boldnesse to aske for a forme which they intended not to use or a strange levity not to doe what they intended But I consider they had a double capacity they were of the Jewish Religion by education and now Christians by a new institution in the first capacity they used those Set formes of Prayer which their Nation used in their devotions Christ and his Apostles sang a Hymne part of the great Allelujah which was usually sung at the end of the Paschall Supper After Supper they sang a hymne saies the Evangelist The Jewes also used every Sabbath to sing the XCII Psalme which is therefore intit'led A Song or Psalme for the Sabbath and they who observed the hours of Prayer and Vowes according to the rites of the Temple need not be suspected to have omitted the Jewish formes of prayer And as they complied with the religious customes of the Nation worshipping according to the Jewish manner it is also in reason to be presum'd they were Worshippers according to the new Christian institution and used that forme their Lord taught them Now that they tied themselves to recitation of the very sect. 87 words of Christ's Prayer pro loco tempore I am therefore easie to believe because I find they were strict to a scruple in retaining the Sacramentall words which Christ spake when he instituted the blessed Sacrament insomuch that not onely three Evangelists but S. Paul also not onely making a narrative of the institution but teaching the Corinthians the manner of its celebration to a tittle he recites the words of Christ Now the action of the Consecrator is not a theatricall representment of the action of Christ but a sacred solemne and * Sacramentall prayer in which since the Apostles at first and the Church ever after did with reverence and feare retaine the very words it is not onely a probation of the Question in generall in behalf of set formes but also a high probability that they retain'd the Lord's Prayer and used it to an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the very forme of words And I the rather make this inference from the preceding sect. 88 argument because the cognation one hath with the other for the Apostles did also in the consecration of the Eucharist use the Lords Prayer and that together with the words of institution was the onely forme of consecration saith Saint Gregory and Saint Hierome affirmes that the Apostles by the command of their Lord used this * prayer in the benediction of the Elements But besides this when the Apostles had received sect. 89 great measures of the Spirit and by their gift of Prayer composed more Formes for the help and comfort of the Church and contrary to the order in the first Creation the light which was in the body of the Sun was now diffused over the face of the new Heavens and the new Earth it became a precept Evangelicall that we should praise God in Hymnes and Psalmes and Spirituall Songs which is so certaine that they were compositions of industry and deliberation and yet were sung in the Spirit that he who denies the last speakes against Scriptures he who denies the first speakes against Reason and would best confute himself if in the highest of his pretence of the Spirit he would venture at some ex tempore Hymnes And of this we have the expresse testimony of Saint Austin De Hymnis Psalmis
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