the Spirit and hinder Men from stirring up or using the gift that God has given them 2. Others of you go further and affirm that all Forms of Prayer are unlawful to Christians and that therefore it is a sin to join in a Worship where they are used or to be present at it 3. That the Minister is the mouth of the Congregation and that he only is to speak publickly to God in the behalf of the people and that they are not to join their Voices but their Hearts only with him Upon these principles you forsake our Worship and many of you think it is a sin to be so much as present at our Religious Assemblies It is of great importance therefore that you should understand what the Scriptures determine in this matter for if our Worship which you thus forsake be plainly enjoined by Scripture as I think I have made it sufficiently appear and these principles of Your Worship and Your Practice pursuant to them have no Foundation in Scripture I cannot see how You can answer your forsaking Our Assemblies to God and your own Consciences Let us then consider each of these Principles apart II. And first for that position of your Directory That the Spirit of Prayer is given to all the Children of God in some measure for enabling their Hearts to conceive and their Tongues to express convenient Desires to God I intreat you to consider what Promise or Foundation it has in Scripture I profess to you seriously That upon the strictest Enquiry I could make I never could find any such Promise made to all the Children of God in the Old or New Testaments neither did I ever meet any Dissenter that was able to shew any such Exclusive of the Use of Forms If then there be none such as we may be well assured there is not was it not too much presumption in the Compilers of your Directory to obtrude this Doctrine on the World or perswade people to depend on it and neglect the help of Forms which the Scripture prescribes and recommends to us Nay as there is no Promise for such extraordinary Assistance to all the Children of God to conceive prayer so neither is there any Command in Scripture requiring us to worship or pray to God in a conceiv'd extemporary or unpremeditated prayer or so much as an Example in a settled ordinary Congregation where it was practised If then you can shew none of these in the holy Scriptures neither Promise nor Command 't is a plain case that this Doctrine is a meer Invention of Men and the Worship built on it a Vanity in the sence of our Saviour Mark vii 7 If my design were only to confute an Adversary what I have already said were sufficient but this Spirit of Prayer is a point of such Consequence that I hope it will be both grateful and instructive to the Readers of all sorts to explain it to them and set it in as clear a light as I can which I shall do under the following Heads III. 1. First therefore I doubt not but it will be granted That whoever prayeth to God with Faith Sincerity Fervency Love Humility Conformity to God's will Vnderstanding and Decency of Expression prays Acceptably to Him and is endowed with the Spirit of Prayer and whoever prays without these does want it 2. I suppose no man of himself can attain these Graces that are requisite to make our prayers Acceptable and that therefore we must have the Assistance of Gods Spirit to beget them in us 3. I suppose that it is possible for a man to acquire by natural means an ability to express himself decently in prayer tho' he cannot so acquire Faith or any other inward Grace so that Decency of Expression is the lowest part of the Gift of Prayer and not alwaies a part of it 4. I say that one praying by a Form may have all these Qualifications and therefore his prayer may be acceptable to God and proceed from his Spirit This may be proved to the Dissenters 1. From the Assembly's Larger Catechism which acknowledges it For when the Question is put How is the Lord's Prayer to be used The Answer is The Lord's Prayer is not only for Direction as a pattern according to which we are to make other prayers but may be also used as a prayer so that it be done with Vnderstanding Faith Reverence and other Graces necessary to the right performance of the Duty of prayer 2. Many of the Psalms are as I observed before Forms of Prayer and the Dissenters make no scruple to turn these Forms of Prayers into Meetre and then sing them Line by Line after the Minister As for Example The first Verse of the fifth Psalm runs thus in the Translation they use Give ear unto my words O Lord My meditations weigh Hear my loud cry my King my God For I to theé will pray This is as much a Form of Prayer as any in the Litany and by their using it as they do they plainly practise praying by a Form And do further also allow that prayers as well as praises may be offered to God with singing and that they may repeat their Forms of prayer after the Minister With what reason then can it be said against us That a Form of Prayer sung in Verse and after the Minister's Reading it is Commendable but the same said or sung in Prose is Unlawful 5. Extemporary conceived prayers may want these spiritual qualifications of prayer as I believe will not be denied by those that contend most for them and they often are manifestly deficient being sometimes performed without Reverence or Decency of Expression and by some even without Understanding and where these qualifications are found others may be wanting The Scriptures observe That a man may make long prayers and yet have a mind dispos'd to devour Widows Houses He may want Faith Humility Fervency and Affiance in God and yet be able to pray without a Form And therefore such prayers are not always Acceptable to God 6. Therefore when God promises the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications to his people Zach. xii 10 this Promise doth not extend to enable all men who are God's Children to conceive with their Hearts and express with their Mouths convenient Desires without a Form for as I shewed before every one to whom God gives a Heart and Disposition to pray has the Spirit of Prayer and he who from this principle offers up his desires to God in a Form prays Acceptably and he that offers them without that principle tho' he do it in unpremeditated and extemporary words is rejected and therefore the Spirit of prayer is the grace the heart the disposition and ability to pray and whether it be with or without a Form such a Man's prayers are acceptable to God and 't is greatly superstitious to think or teach otherwise If God give us a heart to pray and by his providence hath provided us a Form
to express our Desires in or enables us to make one 't is sufficient and we ought to be thankful 7. In confirmation of this Account of the Spirit of Prayer we may further observe 1. That no Worship is Acceptable to God that is not offer'd to Him in Spirit and Truth John iv 24 and therefore the Scripture recommends to us prayers in and by the Spirit but that praying with the Spirit doth not signifie extemporary unpremeditated prayers or exclude Forms will appear from 1 Cor. xiv 15 I will pray with the Spirit I will pray with the Vnderstanding I will sing with the Spirit I will sing with the Vnderstanding also Here we find singing with the Spirit as well as praying with it and whoever sings otherwise doth not worship God as he ought but tho' we are obliged to sing with the Spirit yet we must and ought to sing in the Congregation with a set Form of Words and therefore for the same reason tho' we pray with the Spirit we may pray by a set and prepared Form of Words The most spiritual Songs consist of a set Form of imposed Words and so may the most spiritual Prayers Praying therefore with the Spirit in this place is so far from meaning or being an Argument for the Use of extemporary unpremeditated prayers that it is rather an Argument against them For either we are obliged by it to sing to God in extemporary Hymns or we are not obliged to pray to Him in extemporary Prayers since it is Unreasonable to interpret singing with the Spirit in one sense and praying with the Spirit in a contrary 2. And to confirm this further we find the most spiritual Persons addressing themselves to God in Forms so did Moses so did David as I observed before and so did our Saviour himself on the Cross when in his Agony he repeated the first Verse of Psal. xxii in Syriack and as some believe the whole Psalm by which Act He recommendeth to us Forms of Prayer in his Dying Breath as the most proper means of expressing our condition to God and as most suitable to the Divine Majesty and therefore praying in the Spirit Ephes. vi 18 Praying in the holy Ghost Jude 20. and with the Spirit 1 Cor. xiv 15 signifie praying with Grace in our Hearts by the Assistance and Motion of the Holy Spirit And a man may as well pray with Grace in his Heart when he prays by a Form as sing with Grace in his Heart when he sings by a Form 3. We have a Promise that God's Spirit will assist us with this Grace in our Hearts but we have no Promise that He will help us to Words without the Use of Forms as will appear from Rom. viii 26 The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered those inward motions in the Heart called here groanings are that Grace in the Heart with which we ought to pray and to which the Spirit of God doth and indeed only can help us and to pray with this Grace is to pray in and with the Spirit whether we use words or no and if we do use them whether we reduce them into a Form first or pour them forth as they present themselves to our Minds but we have no Promise that the Holy Ghost will always furnish us with fit words on all occasions and therefore ought not to presume that He will 4. T is certain that he did furnish some with such words for we find both Prayers and Hymns dictated immediately by him of which we have Examples in the Hymns of the Blessed Virgin and Zacharias and in the Song or Prayer of Simeon and in Acts iv 24 But then it is manifest that this was an extraordinary Gift of God and a part of Prophecy and we may not depend on the holy Ghost for this Gift more then for any other Extraordinary Gift till it be made appear that it was to continue alwaies in the Church and to be communicated to All the Children of God Praying and singing the Praises of God are Duties incumbent on all Christians but we are no more obliged to pray Extemporary Prayers from any Example of inspired Men in Scripture than to sing Extemporary Hymns from the like Examples to which yet none I think pretend 5. 'T is very observable that even those who composed their Prayers and Hymns by immediate inspiration did not generally offer them to God in the Congregation till they had first reduced them into a Form Thus David first penned his Psalms and then delivered them to be sung 1. Chron. xvi 7 and 't is probable the Prophets 1. Cor. xiv 26 did the same for they are supposed every one to have a Psalm a Doctrine a Tongue a Revelation c. that is to have them ready and reduced into Form for the use of the Church when they came together That this is the meaning of having a Psalm c. in this place will appear very probable not only from the words which naturally import this and can hardly be otherwise interpreted but likewise from the Apostles making a difference between what these Prophets had prepared and what was revealed immediately at the time of their being together vers 30. If any thing be revealed to another that siteth by let the first hold his peace Which shews that these Psalms c. were to give place to such as were immediately inspired So far were these inspired Men from countenancing an extemporary unpremeditated way of serving God except where there was an immediate Revelation for it and so utterly void of Scripture-proof is this great principle of the Dissenters Worship that the Spirit of prayer is given to every one of the Faithfull to enable them to conceive with the Heart and express with their Tongues their necessities to God without a Form of Prayer 8. It lies therefore my Friends on your Teachers who are of this persuasion to produce plain Scripture for your principles or else to confess that you have laid aside Prayers by Forms commanded by God and practised by holy Men in Scriptures to make room for this way of Praying of Men's own invention But further that place Eccl. v. 1.2 seems to me to afford a strong Argument against such Prayers When thou goest to the House of God Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth Therefore let thy words be few It is hard to say what it is to be rash with our Mouths or hasty to utter any thing before God if it be not rashnesh to trust the expressing all our desires to such uncertain and unpremeditated words as our invention suggests unto us when we come before him which as I have shewed the Scriptures give us no promise of being supplied to us
and the mischiefs that each of them have or may hereafter produce It is hardly conceivable that the forbidding the use of some particular Meats should have so many ill effects as the forbidding Forms of prayer has had already Yet it is observable how St. Paul judges of that Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 1 In the latter times saith he some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils Forbidding to Marry and to abstain from Meats which God hath Created to be received with Thanksgiving You see here St. Paul counts it a departure from the Faith and a Doctrine of Devils to forbid as unlawful in it self any sort of Meat which God has Created for the use of Man and if it be so Criminal to Teach any sort of Meat to be unclean when God has not forbidden it then sure to Teach a Form of Prayer to be unlawful when God has commanded it must be a very ill Doctrine And this consideration alone ought to make those who maintain it or any such Doctrine whereby they are obliged to condemn their Brethren as practising unlawful things to examine it carefully and impartially by the word of God lest they be imposed on by Seducing Spirits The great Design of the Devil is to bring us into an intire subjection to his will But when he despairs of this his next Attempt is to share with God in our Obedience and impose new Commands of his Own upon us as if they were God's and so to procure himself to be obey'd This he doth most successfully by giving them an appearance of Religion and of more than ordinary strictness Thus in St. Paul's time under colour of Mortification he forbad Meats and Marriage as Vnlawful which God had allowed speaking Lies in Hypocrisie and under shew of Religion And thus 't is to be feared he has prevailed on some under colour of greater spirituality to abstain from Forms of Prayer as Unlawful which God has enjoyned And here it is very remarkable that where-ever the Devil gains this point with men and brings them to believe a thing to be forbidden by God which he has not forbidden he soon brings a super-added Command of his Own in Competition with some of God's and prevails with them to prefer his Commands to God's and so plungeth them into direct Disobedience which was his Design at first Thus when he had prevailed with Men to abstain from Marriage they soon fell not only to Commit Fornication but even in some cases to Allow it rather than Marriage as the Papists do And by perswading Men to abstain from Forms of Prayer as Unlawful he has deprived them in many places of all opportunity of Publick Worship and made them choose rather not to serve God at all in Publick than with a Form which is the case of many Thousands now in this Kingdom who worship God publickly no where But 3. This Doctrine of the Unlawfulness of praying by Forms is no such indifferent thing that we may safely indulge Men in their own sense about it Since it is very apt to puff them up and make them take false measures in judging of their own Condition and of the influence of God's Spirit upon them We know that all good Men have the Spirit of God and are guided and influenced by it in the whole tenor of their Lives we make no doubt but they are assisted by Him in their prayers but no less in forgiving an Injury or resisting a Temptation and his influence on a good Man's Mind is rather greater and more sensible in these and other Acts of Religion than in Prayer Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. v. 22 And it is principally by these we ought to conclude that we have that Spirit But the Opinion of the Unlawfulness of Forms of Prayer on a perswasion that the Spirit of God enables every Child of God to conceive with the Heart and express with the Mouth suitable Desires entitles every one to God's Spirit in some measure that is able to express himself in apt and fluent Words tho' without the other Graces of the Spirit and exposes every one to despair that is not able to do this as looking on himself to be destitute of the Spirit tho' otherwise meek humble and charitable and endowed with such Graces as are much wore certain signs of his presence Nay so far are many deluded by this Opinion that they judge themselves or others Children of God and in his Favour according as they are more or less endowed with this Gift without respect to other Qualifications And I dare appeal to your selves Whether some very Immoral Persons guilty of gross and scandalous Crimes have not been eminent for this Gift of Prayer And whether such persons are not apt to flatter themselves that they are the Children of God and endowed with his Spirit notwithstanding all their Wickedness And it is impossible either to convince these persons of their mistake or to comfort poor ignorant people dejected only for want of this Gift whilst they are possessed with this Opinion of the Unlawfulness of Forms Which in the 4th place ought not to be countenanced or indulged as an indifferent thing because it has been a great hindrance to secret Devotion Every Christian ought at least twice a day to address himself to God in secret prayer but a great part of the World cannot do it without a Form Children and ignorant persons are at a loss for Words and even other people are often not able to find them readily especially when wearied dull or indisposed as is sometimes the condition of the the best Christians this makes secret prayer at least a constant regular course of it uneasie to most that are absolutely against all Use of Forms and it occasions too many to neglect it which otherwise would not And as for Children and ignorant people amongst those of this Perswasion I am well assured many of them never bow their Knees in secret to God and several of those that are grown up are forced to speak aloud or cannot pray at all which is against the nature of secret Prayer and exposes not only the Persons that use it to the censure of Hypocrisy but the Duty to Contempt 'T is on this account that the pious Custom of Training up Young People to a constant course of Devotion in their morning and evening secret Prayers is too universally laid aside among you as I have found by experience and for the truth of the Observation I dare appeal to all of the Dissenters On the contrary I am well assured that there cannot be a more effectual or easy method to revive and continue this regular and constant use of secret prayers than to oblige every one to some certain Forms every Morning and Evening which they may not omit whatever other prayers they use But this can never be done whilst the opinion of
the Man of God When such a person by the Inspiration of the holy Ghost used and left to be used by us in our Supplications such a set and prepared Form of Words we ought not to doubt but that manner of Address is acceptable to God 3. The third part of Prayer is Intercession in the behalf of others Now Blessing is an eminent sort of Intercession and for the use of a set Form of Words in this we have likewise the Command of God Numb vi 23 On this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee c. Here we have not onely a Blessing but an earnest Intercession with God for his people and the Form and Words prescribed by Himself which were not to be used by mean ignorant people who are only now supposed by some to need the help of Forms but by Aaron and his Sons the Chief Priests From which we may be assured That God approves that manner of Address in our Blessings and Intercessions for one another not onely from mean people but from the greatest 4. The fourth part of Prayer consisteth in Petitions for averting evil commonly called Deprecation and for this purpose we have several Forms prescribed by God Joel i. 14 Gather the Elders and all the Inhabitants of the Land into the House of the Lord your God and say unto the Lord Alas for the day the day of the Lord is at hand c. We have God's Commandment for another Form Joel ii 17 Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach c. From whence it clearly follows that God approves the use of a Form in this part of Prayer tho' commonly the most earnest and importunate and such as seems least to admit of being bounded by a Form so that we have the Approbation and Commandment of God for the use of a set Form of Words in all the parts of Prayer II. And accordingly we find Holy Men of God tho' full of Wisdom and of his Spirit using the same set Form of Prayer always on the same occasion Thus the Scriptures inform us concerning Moses Num. x. 35 When the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when it rested he said Return O Lord unto the many Thousands of Israel From whence it appears that God approves the use of one set constant Form of Words in our Prayers as long as the occasion of repeating them is the same for I presume none will suspect it was for want of Words or of the Spirit of Prayer that Moses confined himself to this Form I shall add further that the whole Book of Psalms is a Collection of Prayers of all sorts And there are few of them but what are most Excellent Forms of Prayer expressed in such pathetick significant and moving words that we have great reason to thank God for furnishing us with them and which we can never hope to equal by any of our own invention such are the 4 5 6 7 9 10 12 c. On this account they were used by the Jews as the constant Service and Liturgy performed in their Temple as we may gather from what I formerly quoted 2 Chron. xxix 30. III. But perhaps some may think these Commands and Examples of set Forms of Prayer not to be a sufficient Warrant to Christians because they are taken out of the Old Testament before the Spirit was poured out in so plentiful a measure as under the Gospel I shall therefore proceed to examine the Commands and Examples of the New Testament and here 1. I think it is certain that our Saviour and his Apostles prayed by a Form for they joyned in the Worship of the Temple and Synagogues which consisted in Psalms as I have already shewed and in some certain Forms of Prayers added to them and constantly used in their daily Service as we learn from those that give an Account of the Jewish Worship at that time Now our Saviour and his Apostles being frequently present at their Service both in the Temple and Synagogues 't is manifest they approved the manner of Addressing themselves to God in a set Form of Words 2. But our Saviour has put this matter out of all dispute with impartial Men by prescribing a Form to his Disciples when they desired him to teach them to pray as John taught his Disciples For we find his way of Teaching them was not by directing them to wait for the impulses of the Spirit and immediate Inspiration from God of what they were to offer up to him We do not find him saying When ye pray speak what shall then come into your minds or what shall be given you in that hour without taking thought about what they should say as He did in another case that is when they should be brought before Governours and Kings for his sake Mat. x. 19 But in addressing themselves to God he prescribed them a Form of Words and Commanded them to use it Luke xi 2 And he said unto them When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Here is an express Command of Christ to his Disciples to use these Words when they pray Our Father c. A Command for the use of a Form so plain that it is impossible to express it in clearer terms 'T is not to be doubted but Religious Persons among the Jews offer'd up constantly prayers to God We see it in David Psal. lv 17 and in Daniel Chap. vi 10 And no doubt the Disciples of our Saviour were not wanting in this Duty nor in skill to perform it since we find that other devout Persons of their time had their hours of Prayer as we see in Acts iii. 1 Therefore what they desired of our Saviour was not to teach them absolutely or in general to pray but to teach them to pray as John also taught his Disciples that is to give them a Form of Prayer proper to His Institution as they saw the Disciples of Moses and John had proper to theirs Upon which our Saviour gave them the Lord's-Prayer as a summary of the main points of his Doctrine and as a constant badge of their being his Disciples As if he should have said When ever you offer up to God your usual Prayers which Religious Custom has taught you as Jews and Disciples of Moses or of John whether in Secret or Publick add this always to your other prayers for a continual Remembrance to you of those Duties Priviledges and Qualifications which belong to you as My Disciples and as a means of obtaining Grace from your Heavenly Father to enable you to persevere in them The Lords-Prayer is therefore a badge of Our Profession imposed by Christ himself and to be used by Us