I Have perus'd this Tract or Disceptation intitled The Vse of the Lords Prayer and approving it to be learned and judicious sound and Orthodox I license it to be printed and published John Downame THE USE OF THE LORDS PRAYER MAINTAINED Against the Objections of the Innovators of these times By JOHN DESPAGNE Minister of the holy Gospel Englished by C. M. D. M. LUKE XI When you pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. LONDON Printed by Ruth Raworth for Richard Whitaker at the Kings Arms in Pauls Church-yard 1646. TO THE MOST HONOURABLE AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PHILIP Earl of Pembrook and Montgomery Baron of Shurland Lord of Cardiffe Par Ros of Kendal Marmyon and Saint Quintin Knight of the Order of the Garter c. MY LORD THis peece is the Abridgement of two Sermons which I lately made upon this subject in our French Congregation assembled in your house I was requested by one of the most eminent and most ancient Doctors of the Church of England by some of my ordinary hearers to publish it Not but that this Argument might have been handled by others more powerfully then by my self but for other reasons I have assayed to joyn brevity with the Truth knowing that you love both the one and the other For to whom ought I rather to present it then to you MY LORD to whom all our Assembly and my self in particular are so greatly and continually obliged When we pray for PHILIP Earl of Pembrook our hearts say LORD he loves our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue In effect the Ark of God wanted a vaile for a covering and you have lodged it in a house built of Cedars Accept MY LORD that in these lines I publish your charity towards us and the LORD prolong your dayes and powre upon you and your Illustrious Family his most pretious influences THE USE OF THE LORDS PARYER MAINTAINED Against the Objections of the Innovators of these times THe same Spirit which cast the man possest sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water assays to drive us from one superstition to another The Church of Rome in all the acts of her devotions affects a continual iteration of the Lords Prayer out of an opinion that the words or the number of their repetitions carry some secret vertue Many at this day are fallen into a superstition quite contrary shunning the words of this Prayer as a dangerous rock or a stone of stumbling Some others who dare not flatly condemn the Use of this Prayer make neverthelesse a scruple to pronounce it ordinarily desiring rather to passe it by with silence so that this Prayer is found banished from Families and publike Assemblies where it was wont to resound This Candle which was set on the Candlestick to give light to all them of the house is at this day buried under a bushel If there were none but Hereticks or Unbeleevers who attempt to forbid it we might taxe them with irreverence and contempt towards Jesus Christ but because these people make profession to be otherwise Orthodox one is not moved at this novelty although that heretofore we abhorred it as prodigious That we may see then the businesse in question We are not so literal that we condemn every other form of Prayer or that we admit not of other words but men may use other Prayers and not omit this It is a bold attempt to blot out the memory of such a Prayer A Prayer used to this present time by all the Churches of God ancient and modern throughout all the Universal World A Prayer dictated by the supreme Wisdom of that great and eternal Mediator who presents our Prayers to God and who perfectly knows his Fathers minde The most compleat Prayer that can be made summing up all the lawful requests which can be imagined A Prayer which is the Epitome the Miror and the Rule of all others A Prayer which in its wonderful brevity includes so great a plenty and variety of matters as if it would cause a Camel to passe through a needl's eye A Prayer which contains more Histories and more Mysteries then words A Prayer in sum the most Methodical the most Emphatical the most Divine that can be framed For all the parts of this Prayer cohere with an admirable Symetrie All of it is exactly made in measure and proportion All of it is full of torches which enlighten each other One Petition relates to another And these same men confesse That neither all the wits of the Earth nor all the Angels of Heaven were ever capable to dictate the like Did Jesus Christ then dictate this Prayer to the end we should not use it at all On the contrary he sayes unto us Pray thus Our Father which art in Heaven To this they answer that Jesus Christ commands us to pray thus that is to say in the same sense but not in the same words Be it so But then he sayeth Luke 11. When you pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Forbids he to pray in the same words Because he teacheth us to say Our Father c. may we conclude that we ought not to say it It advantageth not to alledge that if this were a Command we ought alwayes to say this Prayer and never any other This is as if one should say it is not commanded to pray to God because it is said Pray without ceasing 1 Thess. 5. 17. As if we ought to do nothing else but pray unto God But suppose that this is no Command and that Jesus Christ hath not enjoyned alwayes to pronounce this Prayer neither hath he forbad to say it often much lesse never The pretence is nothing that it sufficeth to expresse the sense and meaning of Jesus Christ in this Prayer although we expresse not his words For that we may expresse his meaning must we suppresse his words Or can we better expresse the sense and meaning of Jesus Christ then by the very words of Jesus Christ himself What have they then to say against the common Use of this Prayer Certainly Either is not lawful Or it is not necessary Or it is not expedient Let us view these in order Is it then unlawful to utter this Prayer This cannot be said It shall be no more allowed to read it but two places of Scripture are to be raced wherein it is found Matth. 6. Luke 11. Nor doth it help at all to say that many abuse of it This is the Argument wherewith our Adversaries forbid the people the Scriptures If Satan himself hath uttered them if the Enchanters should employ the Psalms and terms of the Gospel must we therefore refrain from uttering them If it is unlawful to speak them superstitiously shall it be unlawful to pronounce them piously And if it be permitted in Prayer to use our own words shall it be forbidden to use the words of Jesus Christ which are the Rule of ours It is lawful then but say they
it is not necessary I answer Grant that it is in no wayes necessary to pronounce this Prayer is it necessary to omit it If it is indifferent to pronounce it or omit it ought we for an indifferency to bring a difference in the Church to affect a novelty to break an Universal Order and to raise scruples in mens consciences But besides there are degrees of indifferency as well as of necessity Will they say that the Use or omitting of this Prayer are in the same rank of indifferency as the use or abstinence from certain meats Certainly that which serves for edification is not at all indifferent Will they say then that the words of Jesus Christ serve not for edification Although they dare not say it expresly neverthelesse they say as much for they maintain that it is not expedient to pronounce them This is the knot of the Question and all the Dispute is brought to this Point Wherefore then is it not expedient to say this Prayer in the very words wherein Jesus Christ did dictate it What great inconveniencies arise thence What losse to Gods Glory What hinderance to the salvation of mens souls What ruine to the building of the Church Thereupon they alledge That we must not be tyed to words That there is danger to idolize the words in pronouncing them so often That the attention that is given to the syllables tyes up the spirit and diverts the thoughts That this frequent pronunciation is a vain repetition condemned by Jesus Christ himself That this Prayer doth not sufficiently particularize all the necessities which ought to be expressed That it is couched in divers words by the two Evangelists which have written it to shew that we ought not to heed the words wherein it is comprised That the Apostles themselves never said it That many cannot say it but to their condemnation because it obligeth every one to beg forgivenesse of his sins on condition of pardoning his enemies That it sutes not with a man that is ready to die because he hath no much need to say Give us our bread That it was not given to serve for a Prayer but onely to be a Patern and Rule of Prayer And that besides in their ordinary Prayers they comprehend all the substance thereof though in different words A general answer to these Objections TO all this I will first oppose a general answer which shall overthrow the greatest part of their Objections These men cannot deny which is most manifest that sometimes God hath prescribed several Forms of Prayer and other actions usual in the Church to the end that they should be pronounced word by word Such was the Form of the Blessing which the Priests usually pronounced over the people in the very words which are read in the sixth Chapter of the Book of Numbers Such was the Form of Thanksgiving prescribed in the offering of the first fruits Deut. 26. Such was the Form of the Protestation and Prayer dictated in expresse words to them which came to pay their triennial tythes Deut. 26. Such was the Form of Prayers which Moses commonly used when the Ark was set forwards or when it rested Numb. 10. 35 36. Such was the Form of Prayers or Thanksgiving which they sung dayly in the Church for were not the Psalms for the most part Prayers or Thanksgivings and were they not pronounced and sung usually I forbear to say that every company of Singers was expresly tyed to certain Psalms as if it were to one task as it appears by their titles The Psalm 92. was sung every Sabbath as we read in the frontispice thereof Consider here why God would dictate Prayers in form of verses if it were not to the end that they should be pronounced word by word For it is well known that it is a difficult thing to change the words of a line which is tyed to measures and fallings of the Art of Poetry Nay more For we have divers Psalms wherein God would have us observe even the very letters of the Alphabet The 25 Psalm which is a Prayer and comes near in substance to the Lords Prayer begins almost every one of its verses according to the Order of the Hebrew Alphabet The 34. 111. 112. and the 119. are of the same structure this last notably in each of his eights answering eight times to the number and order of the 22 letters Every one acknowledgeth that by this Method God would ease mans memory to the end that the most forgetful might easily retain the words of the holy verses whose beginnings were ranked in the form of A. B. C. Did he mean then that we should neglect the words thereof since he would they should be punctually pronounced even to the very least letter I might say also that there are Psalms as the 118. and the 134. which expresse a Dialogue betwixt the Priests and the people This interchangeable discourse consisting in a reciprocal communication of the one with the other could not be kept without an exact observation of words wherewith they answered each other But besides in the Reformation of the Church which the good King Hezekiah procured when there was question made of the re-establishing the holy Liturgie the Levites were commanded to praise the Lord with the words of David and Asaph that is to say to pronounce or sing the very words of the Psalms 2 Chron. 29. 30. It appeareth also that in the Celebration of the Passeover there was the Form of a Song which was alwayes used at this Solemnity And Jesus Christ himself at the end of this Action when he prepared himself for Death made no difficulty to pronounce it and would that his Disciples should pronounce it with him Matth. 26. If these people who condemn at this day the Use of the Lords Prayer had lived in those dayes they would have censured the Wisdom of God for having prescribed Forms of Prayers and for having bound the Church to pronounce them word by word For the same reasons which they bring against the Use of this Prayer the same inconveniencies which they find here the same evasions by which they decline and shun the pronunciation thereof all these may be alledged against all the Forms of Prayers Blessings and Thanksgivings which God had imposed upon his own people Could not one have said That one ought not to tye himself to the words of these Forms and that it sufficeth to speak in the same sense and That the spirit ought not to be limited That by amusing themselves at the words good thoughts are lost That these are continual repetitions That these set Prayers expresse not all that ought to be said That there is danger lest they should be converted to Idols and in sum That it was expedient to suppresse the Use thereof This is a strange thing that God never foresaw these inconveniencies I am amazed that these people have not also abolished the ordinary singing of Psalms for if their maxim be worth
any thing it is as bad to pronounce them as to pronounce the Lords Prayer If one ought not to tye himself to the words of this Prayer Why to the words of the Psalms If we ought not to bind up the spirit Is it more bound up by the words of this Prayer then by the words of a Psalm If the words of this Prayer divert the thoughts of him that prayeth Shall not the singing of a Psalm astonish them If we ought not to rehearse this Prayer if it doth not particularize all the occurrences if there be danger to idolize the words May not one say as much of any Psalm whatsoever Nay more For we sing many Psalms which concerns us not so much or wherein we have not so much interest as in the Lords Prayer In them we pronounce some Prayers appointed expresly for the Jewish Church upon occurrences past and which never at any time befal us There we have requests imprecations reasonings complaints which were Divine in Davids mouth but they are more disputable in our mouths then the Lords Prayer is Why then doth this Prayer more stick in our stomacks then those which are in the Psalms Adde hereunto that the Psalms as we sing them in our vulgar tongues are composed of words added by the humane industry of our Poets So that this work though most excellent is not alwayes so Divine as the Lords Prayer Why then is it more inconvenient to pronounce the very words of Jesus Christ then to sing those that men have introduced Furthermore Since that instead of the Lords Prayer we finde it more to the purpose to have Prayers after our own fashion or framed according unto occasions Why instead of Psalms do we not dayly compose Songs altogether new to sing them in the Church Is this for want of Poetical capacity that we are constrained to keep a perpetual Form of Psalms And if it be for edification to pronounce them and rehearse them in the very words Why is not also the Lords Prayer which is the Abridgement of all the Prayers contained within the Psalms But I have more to say upon every one of their Objections which now we must examine in particular OBJECTION I. They alledge in the first place That we ought not to tye our selves to words Answer 1. THis Maxime taken universally and without any distinction is false and pernicious If this is to be received we ought not to read the Bible for in reading thereof we must tye our selves to the very Scripture-words We must not translate it for in a translation we ought as much as is possible to sute precisely to the very original words A Paraphrase is never so certain and the change of one word sometimes changes the whole sensâ— In the holy History must we nâ—t needs keep the very names of places and persons In the Law are we not bound to take heed to the least Iota yea to the very least Point 2. But the Objection is doubtful For if they understand that we are not so tyed to the very words of this Prayer that it may not be permitted us to use any other this is that which we say with them But if they mean under the shaddow of this liberty that we must neglect or suppresse the words of this Prayer this is that we argue with them For because Jesus Christ permits us to use our own words must we bury his Because our own words are allowed to passe must we cut down the words of the holy Ghost But on the contrary If ours are good how much more those which he hath dictated to us So far ought we to be from shunning the language of God that on the contrary we ought as much as may be to make it familiar and common And would to God we were so well versed therein that we might have it continually in our mouths OBJECTION II. But here they observe unto us a great danger That in making so great esteem of the words of this Prayer it is to be feared that in the end we may make thereof an Idol Answer 1. THis is a strange Paradox that the words of this Prayer which teach us to shun Idolatry should be suspected by us as capable to make us commit Idolatry For this Prayer teacheth us to call on none but Our Father which art in Heaven and to attribute neither Power nor Kingdom nor Glory but to him alone Will not these men say too That we are in danger to become Idolaters of the second Commandment of the Decalogue if we pronounce it very often Shall we make an Idol of that Commandment which forbids Idols Certainly the Church of Rome is not become idolatrous for having too often pronounced the words of this Commandment but rather for having neglected them when they concealed them from the people 2. But may not any one become an Idolater of the words which are pronounced in Baptism Must we not passe them over also with silence to shun Idolatry Is not the same danger found in the words of the Lords Supper This is my Body The greatest Idolatry which is in the World is founded upon these words ill understood May we then abstain from pronouncing them Nay Ought we not also to pronounce them alwayes and as often as we rehearse the Institution of the Lords Supper I will say more The very Name of God is idolized by the Jews saying That the pronunciation thereof can work all the greatest miracles even to the removing of mountains Must their superstition hinder us from the pronouncing of the Name of God or may we impose every day on God some new Name lest his ordinary Name being very often exprest should at last become an Idol 3. Moreover The same danger they finde in the Lords Prayer may be found in every other Prayer For may not any one idolize the words or the form though it be new Know we not that mans spirit is so prone to adore novelties Must we then abstain wholly from praying to God to shun all danger of Idolatry OBJECTION III. Now follows an Objection wherein these men attempt to make Jesus Christ speak against himself For say they He hath condemned vain repetitions in Prayer Now the ordinary Use of the Lords Prayer is a perpetual rehersal Answer 1. REad the sixth of S. Matthew the seventh and following verses you shall finde there that Jesus Christ dictated this Prayer for the shunning of vain repetitions Use not says he vain repetitions but pray thus Our Father c. Shall we say that that is a vain repetition which is given us as a remedy against vain repetitions Would Jesus Christ heal one maladie by another like it or drive out one Devil to bring in another in the room 2. Jesus Christ hath not condemned all repetitions in general Did not he himself to wit in his agony repeat even three times the very same evening the very same words Abba Father if it be possible let this cup passe
from me In one and the same Psalm which is the 136. so many verses so many times this clause The mercy of God endureth for ever The same words are there pronounced 26 times 3. What repetitions then are there found forbidden Those which are vain Vain they are when one thinks that their multiplication carryes some vertue Vain also if there be want of understanding of affection or of Faith But the repetition of a Prayer animated alwayes with the same Spirit which ought to act in this exercise can never be vain As on the contrary a Prayer destitute of this Spirit shall not cease to be vain though it be pronounced but once Besides if it be permitted to repeat the same thoughts which I have already had why may I not rehearse them in the very same words wherein I have already expressed them There may be as much vanity in reiterating the sighs every moment as many now adayes have made a fashion of it as to repeat the words of Jesus Christ 4. Moreover I marvel that these men make profession that they so much hate repetitions seeing the greatest part of their Prayers is built on nothing but repetitions A repetition consists not onely in rehearsing the same words but also in rehearsing the same thing though in different terms Is not this a rehearsal when a man having named dirt comes a little after to name it mud or after he hath spoken of a Sword he comes to speak of a Rapier Their Synonyma's and Periphrases wherewith their Prayers are wholly stuft are they not so many repetitions 5. We may observe hereupon that this passage which they object against us Matt. 6. 7. forbids not onely vain repetitions but also multitude of words Wherefore do not these men apprehend that there may be as much vanity in the length of their Prayers wherein they spend as much time as would suffice for a good Sermon as in saying once the Lords Prayer Or is the tediousnesse of their Prayers more contrary to vain babling then the brevity of this It may be they will ask How many times we may pronounce it in a day or in an hour But this is all one as if they should ask How many times ought we to pray to God For we are enjoyned to pray without ceasing Not that God requires of us a continual act but neverthelesse it ought to be frequent Besides the worth of our Prayers lies not in the number nor in the measure but in the weight OBJECTION IV. Behold another Objection The words of him which prays must second his thoughts but it will come to passe that one being attentive to the words of the Lords Prayer his good thoughts will straggle and his spirit shall be diverted Answer 1. IT is false and a very strange thing to say that the words of Jesus Christ divert good thoughts If they well understood this Prayer they would never speak in this manner Can we have better thoughts in Prayer then those which are included in the words of this Prayer 2. It is false and cannot be said without blasphemy that they make the spirit wander On the contrary they guide the spirit Can we better rank our thoughts then by making them march according to the Order traced by Jesus Christ himself 3. It is false and abominable that the words by which we receive the Spirit of God distract the spirit of man for this Prayer is a parcel of that Doctrine of Faith by which we receive the holy Ghost Galat. 3. 2. 4. Are these men so full of good thoughts that having spent whole hours in venting their conceptions as they would that they cannot bestow three or four minutes on the Lords Prayer 5. But if we ought to abstain from the words thereof under colour that they do not alwayes meet with those thoughts which may come upon us in the act of Prayer I demand of these men When any one of them makes a Prayer in publike whether he be assured that all the thoughts of his Auditors just meet alwayes and at such a point with his own or with the words by the which he expresseth them It should be very hard for him in a great Assembly to finde one man that hath so perfect a concurrence with him Is there not then the same danger lest the words of his Prayer should divert the good thoughts of them that hear him Or is there more disturbance in hearing a Prayer dictated by Jesus Christ whereunto we have already prepared and conformed our thoughts then to hear one of a man whose thoughts prevent and oftentimes stifle ours OBJECTION V. This same shall serve for an answer to another reason which they alledge The spirit say they ought to be free and we ought not to shut it up in the bonds of a Form Answer 1. MUst the spirit of man that it might be free be without Rule Or is it inslaved if it pronounce the Lords Prayer God grant we have alwayes the liberty to pronounce it 2. This Prayer is indeed short in words but in substance it is of so great extent that it comprehends the Heaven and the Earth the present and all ages to come Is the spirit of these men so vast that this Prayer cannot contain it 3. Or if it be captivity to hear this Prayer pronounced Is the spirit of the hearers more captived in hearing the Prayer of Jesus Christ or in hearing the Prayer of another OBJECTION VI Thereupon they say This Prayer doth not sufficiently particularize it expresseth not our necessities but in terms very general but we ought according to occurrences to expresse the particularities every one by its own proper name Answer 1. THese men fear it seems lest God should not well understand unlesse they shewed him with the finger and unlesse they deciphered out unto him particularly all their petty necessities And verily under colour of particularizing many instead of presenting their Prayers to God seem to give him instructions Many also expressing particularities expresse their impertinences And many too thinking they desire an Egge desire a Scorpion Certainly it is often necessary to particularize but there needs great discretion whereof all are not capable General requests as those of the Lords Prayer are as the Stars which have their station certain and their motion regular But when we come to particulars then one descends as it were to the Elementary region where all things are various and turbulent and where one shall meet with a perpetual conflict of reasons as waves driven with contrary winds 2. Moreover If a man would undertake to name all the favours which are necessary or expedient for him he shall never end his Prayer Is there any man that can particularize all the things which are requisite either for his being or for his welâ—being all the kindes of temptations all the depths of Satan all his own offences Who is he that knows his transgressions Psal. 19. And besides all the necessities of the