praise the Name of the Lord for all his great and rich Mercies and Blessings And if the Spirit of the Lord did not enlighten the Understanding and Mind of Man to teach him what to seek and pray for but only did warm and heat Mens affections all this would be but a blind Devotion which all true Protestants cry out against c. That Heavenly and Sacred Fire that God sends down into the Hearts of his People is not a dark obscure Fire but shining and enlightening and hath Light as well as Heat in it The Spirit of Prayer and Supplication is not only a Spirit of Love but a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding And though there is a kind of Prayer that may be and oft is without Words either expressed or conceived in the Understanding because there is a degree of Understanding in Man that transcendeth all Words I mean such Words as we commonly use which are the signs of things signified by them as Aristotle defineth Words Verba sunt signarerum i. e. Words are the signs of things In which high degree of Understanding the Spirit and Mind of Man reacheth to the Divine and Heavenly things themselves without these words where the things are words themselves or where the words and things are not distinct But the thing is its own word and the word that signifieth it as the thing it self But Aristotle so much admired for his worldly Wisdom and Philosophy as it seemeth knew not this Mystery nor yet do his followers Notwithstanding of which because the Lord who is Infinitely Bountiful and Gracious unto men doth not only inlighten and shine upon this highest part of Man's Understanding but also causeth his Light and Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding to descend to the lowest degree thereof even to his Reason and Imagination for the very Imagination of man is said in Scripture to be wrought upon by the Spirit of God see Isa. 26. 3. That which is Translated in and according to the Hebrew signifieth Imagination See also 1 Chron. 29. 18. Keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts c. Which inferiour and lower Powers of man's Soul cannot reach to Divine things without the signes of Words Therefore it pleaseth God to work upon the Understandings of Men so as to make them fruitful to bring forth good and pertinent Words of Truth as well as upon their minds and affections to bring forth the fruits of Holy and Spiritual desires Wherefore the Apostle Prayed to the Lord that God would establish the true Believers in him in every good word and work 2 Thes. 2. 17. Whence I conclude that good words are as real a Fruit of the Spirit as good works or desires and these good words must not be borrowed words from the mouths or lines of others made ready to our Hands but must spring from the inward fruitfulness of our own Understandings as the spirit of the Lord doth water them and make them fruitful after a Heavenly sort For it is not the Corn that lyeth upon the ground though ever so abundantly which hath grown in another Land or Country that denominates the Ground where it lyeth to be fruitful but that is only a fruitful Ground which bringeth forth from within it self as it is assisted by the Heavenly Rains and Influences the like Corn or any other Grain that is good and profitable And therefore it is not the abundance even of Scripture Words which a man receives into his memory or bare natural Understanding that simply makes his Mind and Understanding fruitful unto God but the inward sense and mystery of Scripture words must be opened in him by the Spirit of the Lord and then the Understanding of a man by the help of the Scripture words being inwardly and spiritually opened by the Holy Spirit brings forth as it were as so many Seeds a plentiful Harvest where the good Ground of the good and honest Heart yieldeth its fruit some Thirty some Sixty and some an Hundred Fold and alwaies with some increase So that although Scripture words have a most excellent service and use to the Children of God and their minds and understandings are made fruitful with the Spiritual knowledg and opening of them by the Spirit of the Lord As the ground or soil is with seed sown in it yet the understanding is not confined to the strict and precise number of scripture words but yieldeth an increase of other words from the same spirit and of the same tendency and signification As the seed that is sown yeildeth more Grains than what was sown These and such like openings in great plenty to the praise of God have livingly sprung up in me as concerning Prayer time after time and have at the present writing been livingly brought to my remembrance with an addition of many more which here I present to all Friendly and Loving Readers to whose hands this may come for a general service where I have handled and treated of things I hope soberly and fairly in the spirit of Love and Meekness not naming any Persons or Parties by way of reflection to provoke them to anger or dislike only with some Fervency But yet in true Love I have reproved and argued against those who pretend to Pray by the Spirit without a set Form and yet deny the spirits Immediate Teachings and assistance And tho I aim against Reading set Forms of Prayer so as to make that Reading to be Prayer it self yet I am not simply against Reading of Prayers which have in any measure proceeded from the spirit of God in the Ages past SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING PRAYER And some Reasons that all Prayer in words whether conceived in the Heart or uttered and expressed by Mouth should be by the help of the Spirit helping us to conceive those words With an Answer to some Objections or seeming Reasons brought for using set Forms of Prayer read out of a Book Also concerning Singing or Praising God with a Psalm Quest. WHat is Prayer A. It is a calling upon the Name of God through Jesus Christ and the asking of him in Faith the things which we should or do desire Q. What are these things which we should desire and ask of God by Prayer A. They are many but may be reduced to these Three Heads 1. The things which are for God's Glory and the Sanctifying his great Name in the Earth 2. The things which we stand in need of or want as to our selves 3. We are also to Pray for others even for all men that they may be saved whose Day of Salvation is not expired yea for our greatest Enemies Also we are to Pray for the Church of God in general that God may build her up more and more preserve and defend her multiply his Graces and pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon her and upon her Members in their respective places and especially for those who have a publick Ministry in the Church that he may
Prayer they will and ought to take care to supply it another way that every day at least inwardly if not outwardly they have frequent times to be retired into the Closet of their Hearts the Door of their Hearts being shut and there in secret to Pray unto the Lord laying aside all wordly thoughts for that time Nor is it safe to neglect this exercise or lay it aside upon the pretence of the constant and continual sort of Prayer which consists in the Soul's desire after God and may well be without all words so much as inwardly conceived for no doubt the Prophets and Apostles had this constant sort of Prayer that consists in a manner wholly or for the most part in the will and desire and affections of the Soul which keeped their Hearts continually in a godly and spiritual frame but notwithstanding of this they used also frequent Solemn times of that other kind of Prayer which exerciseth not only the will and affections but the understanding also whereby they spoke unto God at least in their Hearts words of Prayer which some call discursive Prayer or the Prayer of Meditation the which is frequently necessary to be performed by every true and good Christian for the strengthening and encreasing the Prayer of the will and desire which ought to be a continual thing and without the said discursive Prayer used at least in the Heart and that frequently the prayer or desire of the will groweth flat and dull yea languisheth and is ready to die and be extinguished unless it be helped and assisted with discursive Prayer and Meditation in the frequent exercise of it For discursive Prayer when duly and rightly performed exciteth and stirreth up the Prayer of desire even as the blowing of the Bellows makes the Fire to burn the better and raiseth it into a bright and burning Flame And the Prayer of desire which is principally lodged in the will and affections is like the continual motion of the heart in the body of a living man which must be preserved and assisted with Eating and Drinking and other outward Labours and Exercises of the Body without which the inward motion of the Heart would soon fail and he extinguished Nor is it sufficient for any to excuse their not using this kind of Prayer by speaking to God in their Hearts upon a pretence of not being called or moved thereunto by the Holy Spirit for whoever do not find themselves frequently called and moved to such a Divine and Heavenly Exercise so exceeding necessary to every true Christian it is too manifest an evidence that they are carnal and earthly also that they have quenched the Spirit and resisted the same and that they are got into a false liberty of their fleshly will out from under the Yoak and Cross of Christ whereas all such who keep under his blessed Yoak and Cross to crucifie self and all the thoughts and desires thereof are kept in a living tender and sensible condition of Soul and Heart and these feel the callings and movings of the Holy Spirit to be frequent in them to Prayer Meditation giving of Thanks and all other necessary Duties and such continually watch unto Prayer and are still waiting for the Spirit 's gentle and soft breathings and the more they wait for them the more they find them and have experience of them Q. How and after what manner doth the Spirit help and assist the Faithful to Pray in words either inwardly conceived and spoke only in the heart unto God or outwardly expressed in the audience of others Doth he give or dictate to them all and every one of the words of their Prayer just so many in number and neither more nor less and doth he make use only of their Understanding and other powers of their Soul in a passive way so as only to receive what is delivered unto them as the Conduit or Water-pipe only sends out the Water that is put into it or as the Wax or Clay only showeth the figure or form of the impression it hath received from the Seal A. It is somewhat hard and difficult to express the manner of the Spirits helping us to pray in words for all the Operations of the Spirit are better and more clearly felt and perceived in the Souls of them who witness them than they can be uttered or expressed in words And it is very hard to express the manner of the natural Operations of a man as how he seeth heareth smelleth tasteth and feeleth or how he speaketh and how the words arise from his mind and heart until they come to his mouth and how the Mouth Tongue and Lips do utter them And if these natural Operations whereof we have daily experience are so hard to be explained as to the manner of them how much more hard and difficult are they which are Spiritual and Supernatural to be clearly explained and expressed in Words unless the Lord give an ability in a good measure However somewhat may be said to those who have a single and honest desire to be informed that may be of service unto them but as for such who are only curious to pry into this Mystery and lye at the â—atch to take advantage they are like to receive no satisfaction And now to the Question I Answer directly and positively thus that the Soul and its powers are not wholly and altogether passive and meerly receptive or recipients in this case as Water-conduits or Wax and Clay in respect of the Seal but partly passive and partly active as the Earth is in the production of its Fruits and Vegetables or as the Womb of the Mother is in bringing forth of her Children for both the Earth and the Woman are active as well as passive in the production of their respective Births and bring them forth from the Seeds which they have received And hence it is that true Prayer as it is a Fruit of the Spirit who has â—own the true seed of it in the Soul and causeth it to grow with its Divine and Heavenâ—y Influences so is it also a Fruit of the Soul which the Soul being quickned and made aâ—ive unto God and made fruitful with the Divine-feed it hath received and the Divine over-shadowings of that Holy Spirit of promise brings forth unto God. And hence it is that dead and fruitlesssouls in Scripture which are empty of good Fruits are compared to dry and barren Trees and also to barren Ground as the good and honest Heart in the Parable is compared to good Ground which brought forth some an Hundred Fold and some Sixty and some Thirty And said Iohn the Baptist to the Pharisees Bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance for now the Ax is laid to the Root of the Tree every Tree therefore that bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewed down and cast into the Fire Now true Prayer is one of these good Works and Fruits which the Souls of the Faithful bring forth unto God the Husband-man
that good effect to open the understanding and work holy Affections in the Souls of People it is sufficient to edification For where a thing is well understood a man needs not concern his memory much about it As he who understandeth the reasons and grounds of rules and precepts of Art he can practise the things belonging to that Art better with his understanding without thinking on those rules then he who only hath the rules of Art in his memory but understandeth not the reasons and grounds of those rules Nor can these forms be so edifying as extemporary Prayer by the true Spirit of God because they cannot so universally in all particulars reach to the various states and conditions of Peoples Souls And to say that all the various states of Peoples Souls if there were a thousand of them are comprehended under the words of those general set forms doth not satisfie For as on the one account set forms are too few and strait or narrow to reach all particular states and seasonable times so if generals can serve these set forms commonly used are too many because one only set form of Prayer contained in a few words may in general reach to all Peoples states and surely none doth or can better do that than the Prayer which Christ taught his Disciples And if men deny that they have any assistance of the Spirit to help them to conceive these set forms of Prayer which they use were it not better to collect together forms of Prayer out of the Old and New Testament putting all these words and sentences together which are most to the same purpose or if belonging to several purposes that have some fit connexion together and so the words of their Prayer would be pure Scripture words without any mixture of the words of man's Wisdom which are oft times very unsound 8. They Object That many who Pray extempore contradict one another in thrir Prayers ask contrary things and therefore both such Prayers cannot be from the Spirit of God which as it is one in Nature so in Operations ever agreeing and in unity with it self Ans. The whole weight and stress of this Objection lyeth upon Persons and Men and not upon the Principle to refute or refeâ— it in the least and as for these who most commonly pray contrary one to another they are such who do not pretend or lay claim to pray by Divine Immediate Inspiration But if both sides should lay claim thereunto and yet contradict one another in their Preaching or Praying it only proveth that the men are faulty sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other and sometimes they may be faulty and wrong on both sides but the Principle remaineth still unblamable nor hath this Objection more weight now than in the daies of the true Prophets of old against whom the false Prophets both Preached and Prayed and pretended to be also Divinely and Immediately Inspired as well as the true And lastly This Objection can be well enough retorted for they who pray by Set Forms may pray contrary one to the other The Greek and Latine Churches had both Set Forms of Prayer and prayed one against another as well as preached when that great Zeal and Schism came to be between them And how many Preach against one another who pretend to Scripture and good Reason and also to good Literature which yet is no just reflection on any of these three things but only on the Men or Persons who abuse them 9. It is objected That Paul in his Epistles used the same Forms of Salutations and Prayers both at the beginning and end of them frequently and therefore he could not be against Set Forms who used them so much himself as Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Iesus Christ at the beginning of divers of them and at the end Grace be with you c. Answ. These little short Forms being as is already said upon another occasion expressions and significations of the Prayer of Aspiration and Affection and not of that called Discursive Prayer which require divers Sentences do not infer that Set Forms may be used in Discursive Prayer For when the Heart and Affection is earnestly and zealously bent and moved to desire one only thing it may be expressed in one Sentence and as oft as that Affection is renewed the expression of it in the same Sentence as it freely ariseth in the Heart may be renewed also but men find it not so in Discursive Prayer or other Discursive Exercises As when men at this day commonly write Epistles one to another they retain some little common Forms of Salutation at the beginning and end of their Epistles which are commodious and not thought strange not disliked But if a Man yea if a School-boy at School should alwaies write to his Father or Kindred the same words throughout without any alteration they would say he were a fool and void of understanding to be so barren as to have no new matter in his Epistles even when daily occasion is given 10. It is Objected That God is not delighted with variety of words and novelty of matter and method in new stiles and flourishes of Tropes and Figures and is far unlike those squeemish Stomacks or delicious and lustful Appetites who every day seeketh after variety of Dishes or else they cannot be satisfied at being the Heart that he requireth Answ. It is true God is not delighted with variety of Words and Sentences as Man is or after the manner of Men but yet he requireth that every man make use of the Graces and Gifts which he hath given him and they being the works of God and proceeding from him he may be said to delight in them and in their manifold Variety as he doth in all his other Works altho not after the manner of men yet after such a way and manner as becometh his infinite Greatness and Perfection And tho it be the Heart that God mainly requireth and regardeth yet he commandeth us to love and serve him with our whole man which is our reasonable service and we are to love him with all our Understanding as well as Heart as the Scripture saith and the best and most fruitful part of our Understanding and all the Gifts belonging to it our Judgment Reason and Elocution may and ought to be employed in his Service and in this particular Service of Praver as Holy Men of old who used their Understanding and Reason and such Elocution also and variety of Expressions as God had given them and so ought every Man to do as the Spirit of the Lord leads him and works upon him and those Gifts he has given him without affection or stretching and straining beyond his measure And tho we find no affected or artificial Eloquence in Words of Man's Wisdom which is carnal and from below yet a true Eloquence and excellency of Speech is to be found in many places of Scripture both