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lord_n	force_v	godly_a	great_a	32	3	2.1265	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96904	A treatise of prayer. Two quæries resolved touching formes of prayer. And six quæries relating specially to the Lords Prayer. That the reader may have full resolution, specially to the fourth of these quæries, relating to the Lords Prayer, he shall find in the end of this treatise, that holy and learned mans judgement, Dr. Owen, as to that matter in his answer to Mr Biddles second question of prayer. Pag.667, 668, 669.	Woodward, Ezekias, 1590-1675.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3508; Thomason E880_9; ESTC R206598	68,060	83

whereby to teach his childe to pray It is not the worke of a day or two as was said in another case but the worke of every day while the childe is under the parents eye and eare To teach the childe to pray Nay to adde this It is easie for the vilest person in your Nationall Church to teach a childe to pray if to give him a forme to pray be to teach him to pray for so much he or she can doe having learnt so much themselves to pray that way But sure he or she must be taught to pray and helpe by the good Spirit to pray before they can teach their childe to pray Fourthly And in the fourth place we thinke it at least coasteth neere the brinke of presumption nay is it not downe-right presumption to teach a childe to pray by giving him a forme of prayer to say As thus for as wee said so plaine wee would be Deare childe what ever thy ignorance is of God the Father thou prayest unto or of God the Sonne manifest in the flesh in whose name thou prayest what ever mercy thou hast received and wouldst praise God for what ever want thou feelest and wouldst pray to Him for a supply from Him what ever thy sinnes are thou shouldst confesse before Him yet doe thou childe pray in these words according to this very forme I have prescribed unto thee Surely wee will not feare to say this were presumption and so as may be feared it will be accounted before his God Fifthly Besides and so wee have done In so doeing wee meane so teaching this childe to pray by a forme The parent hath told a loud lye in the eares of God and of all the godly for he tells God and men both he hath taught his childe to pray when indeed there is no such thing done he hath not taught his childe to pray for by his owne confession he hath given his childe a forme whereby to pray which forme will become a prayer well-pleasing unto God when copper becomes gold the bramble a vine the Moone a Sunne or when the Sunne painted on a signe-post shall shine in the firmament of Heaven And so wee have taken in your reasons and examined the reasonablenesse of them That a parent teaching his childe to pray must give him a forme whereafter to pray Wee have given in our reasons also from sacred Scripture as wee suppose That by giving your childe a forme whereby to pray is not to teach the childe to pray But let it be committed to Him Who guides into all truth CHAP. IX Sixt and last Querie Q VI. WEE are come to our sixt and last Querie to give in our thoughts thereunto Whether a Godly parent hath any Command from Christ to teach their children the Lords prayer thereafter to pray saying the very same words Wee said a Command from Christ for wee suppose it granted That a Godly person will in every thing he doth specially in matters of so high concernment look first to his Warrant This I doe I have a sure Word for what I doe And having his Lords S●quis De●●h ●empe●et jam ut da●ne u● a ●en tum Mand●●● tis est h●h●r D●um ●uth● ē Lum 3. 38. word for that he doth should he be condemned by an hundred worlds to use excellent Calvins words he has enough to beare him out his Lord Commanded him But Sir before we proceed we crave leave to give-in a sho●t account wherefore wee meddle with this here your selfe giving the occasion thereof and little lesse though perhaps against your purpose provoking us so to doe Our account in short is this Our Minister in the course of Catechizing his people as was hinted before in our Introductive part fell upon the Exposition of the Lord's Prayer and as an Introduction thereunto he put some Queries about this prayer and among others of speciall use all as we thought this was one Whether a Godly parent ought to teach his Children this prayer and so resolved it from Scripture as wee suppose in the Negative he ought not But how were the Godly people they seemed such to be and we would hope they some of them more than seeme stirred at this as much every whit as the ungodly are when their Idol is pulled at to pull it-away for whereas we tell you the words of one of them they could have pulled out their eyes for their Minister before he meddled with the Lord's prayer now they were more enclined at least to pull out their Ministers eyes from him than their owne for him Truely we judge Charitablie as our dutie is and conceive good hope that the Opposers or contrary-minded herein some of them are godly in the maine onely seduced or misguided by former guides though one of them well stricken in yeares was taught that prayer at the first when he was a Childe and seldome said any other to that day as hath been told to us by one that did know if any did To Conclude our narrative part These persons thus moved and disquieted addressed themselves to you Sir as their Oracle whereas their Dutie was to have Consulted with the Scriptures our Minister laid before them and afterwards as occasion required with himselfe But it is not our manner to doe things after their right manner Though yet we Blame them not for adviseing with you onely wee say they should have searched the Scriptures and have advised with their Minister first Your Answer to them was sweet and comely farre otherwise than was reported by one of them who may be as much taken with that prayer as some are with that they make an Idol Onely this you said to them which they lookt for and it pleased them well and it was aboundantly enough to marre all our Minister had said from the Lord unto them That you teach your Children that prayer or allow it they should be so taught And now wee are forced to call your practise into Question which truly but for the Truth 's sake wee shall doe unwillingly and so wee shall state the Question in the Negative That a Godly Parent ought not to teach his Children the Lords prayer You hold the Affirmative for thereafter you practise wee would hope you can make full proof that your practise is Godly So Sir we crave your reasons at least wee crave your leave to guesse at them by what we have heard from others and so to sett downe as may be allowed us in these cases what probably your reasons may be to hold-forth your practice with your children to be godly and holy full-up to your rule and prescription in Gods word whereafter you order wee hope your whole conversation your sayings and doeings before your people and your whole house your children specially the maine and principall parts and your cheife goods there for by your well-ruling of them and care over them you will make full proofe what care you take of the Churches of God for he

something is to be done The Apostles said that Learned Expositour Upon Job 7. 20 p. 691. gave Gospell Counsell yet when men asked them What shall we doe to be saved they said not ye must doe nothing God will save you by His free Grace No they called them to repent and beleive every one of them Sin must be knowne to be sin call it by the worst name you can thinke of then you call it Sin above Rom. 7. measure sinfull and must be acknowledged so to be Onely acknowledge thy iniquitie Know the Plaegue of thine owne heart and Jer. ● 13. 1 Kings ● 38. mourne for thy sinne because Committed against the Lord and doe this as David for his Son every day for every day thou sinnest 1 Sam. 13. 37. Zach 12. and as true Mourners doe mourne bitterly and mourne the more because thou canst not mourne enough This is that the Lord will have the Disciples doe And so now for we must Contract we will conclude That Confession of sin is the great ingredient in prayer for pardon of sin whereunto the Scriptures speake every where Onely Acknowledge Confessing their sinnes And forsaking of sin must goe before pardon of Sin yea and subduing of sin too All this in the strength of God but he must be enquired of touching these matters He will have sin acknowledged He will have sin forsaken put as far away by us as the East is from the West as to our Love to it likeing of it desire after it delight in it So far we must put it away before the Lord will tell us that He hath put our sins so far away from Himselfe and from Psal 103. us That it shall be as possible for the East and West to meet together as for a Man and his sin to hurt him So now wee conclude That this Confession of sin which every man will grant must be with a man 's owne mouth not by any set forme whatsoever is not expressed no not the least sound that way in the Lords prayer Therefore his Disciples indeed what ever your Disciples * doe bring not this Prayer before their God And SECT VI. OUr sixth reason why a Disciple bringeth not this Prayer before his God is because it is already wrought to his hand he need not take any paines about it The least Child in his house that can speake though he cannot read can say it This Disciple that knows in his measure what a Disproportion there is betwixt the Great and Dreadfull God and this worme the Creature yea baser than a worme considered in himselfe because a sinfull Creature or to expresse it in excellent Greenhills words betwixt Majestie and Nothingnesse And that sloath to use the same man's words is a Gulf betwixt this God who is all and this Creature who is nothing at all in himself considered but a thing of nought worse than Nothing This Disciple now knowing all this in his measure dareth not as we suppose and were saying Come before his God with a prayer wrought to his hand but having accesse to the Father through the Mediation of the Sonne by one Spirit he casteth himselfe into the Armes of the Spirit lookes for a supply from Him enableing this Disciple to put-up a prayer wrought James 5. 16. now in him and wrought out from him by the same Spirit This prayer wrought to our hands The Lords Prayer is the exactest peice of worke in sight that ever was But yet this Disciple that saies this prayer if any such there be as many such there be in the Nationall Church is not exact in this prayer for praying this Prayer wrought to his hand he prayes nothing to purpose Nothing wrought in him by the Spirit of God nor wrought-out from him by the same Spirit he doth exercise neither the gift of prayer nor the Grace of prayer Nay he doth not exercise any one facultie of his Soule in saying his prayer wrought to his hand nor any one member of his body unlesse it be his tongue and what is lip-labour before the Lord any more than eye-service before ● Sam. 24. a Man Certainly this Disciple is of David's mind I will not said he offer unto the Lord my God of that which shall c●st me nothing There is a body-prayer of this we have been speaking hitherto to use that Excellent Expositours Distinction which Upon Job 11. 13 p. 108. is never alone with a Disciple for woe to Body-prayer when it is alone And there is a Soule-prayer which may be alone and 1 Sam. 1. 13. Neh 2. 4. as fervent effectuall both as Hannah's and Nehemiah's prayers were For the soule and spirit of a prayer is the soule and spirit in the strength of God lifted-up in prayer which doth infinitely more in prayer than the body doth yet in saying this prayer the body doth nothing the soule lesse But this is the thing A Disciples Body-prayer wherein he exerciseth himselfe every day and likely thrice a day exerciseth the whole outward-man The hands pray knees pray the eyes pray we have this in the place fore-mentioned gestures are speaking in prayer By these we pray when we hold our peace and lift-up a loud voice when we say never a word but in saying this prayer wrought to our hands the Soule and Body both every power of the one and every member of th' other may fit as still as a stocke onely let the tongue wagge and by helpe thereof say the prayer notwithstanding The tongue is all-sufficient for that worke All the Rest both the powers of the Soule and members of the Body may stand stock-still the while when one member is all-sufficient for the worke what needs more Frustrà sit per plura We had more reasons to give why a Disciple brings not this prayer before his God but we thinke this may suffice onely remember this Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Wee come now to the fourth Querie CHAP. VII Q. 4. Q. IV. WHether it be comely for a Godly Man and true Minister of Christ to pray the Lords Prayer before his people that is to adde it unto the close of his owne It hath been said by two onely in our heareing The one old enough to make a Minister if yeares would doe it But Tempora certè Virtutem nec prima negant nec ultima donant The other young enough to say no more These two and onely these spake this more than ever we heard spoken by any in the Close of their prayers Thou mayest Lord justly neglect our imperfect prayers if we should neglect to say Thy most perfect prayer Thou hast prescribed to us Commanded us to say If this now can be proved that our Blessed Saviour hath commanded His Ministers to close their prayers with His prayer then The Question is resolved in the Affirmative and put out of all Question That every Godly Minister must close his prayer with the Lord's

they will for necessitie they say hath no law be so bold or impudent rather to use that prayer also being the most exact forme of all formes But these never were and never shall be so forsaken of their God And in assured Confidence thereof we proceed Thirdly This we have heard some one of us at least alledged for the saying of this prayer There is a sicknesse upon all the faculties of the soule And the memory amidst the Rest is a very sickly weake and infirme thing So as we many-times forget to put up those Requests unto God which were in the purpose of our hearts to doe Now to helpe and succour us in this matter we adjoine the Lords prayer to the end of ours that being compleat as we all know in the whole and in every part and Containes in it as the Creed all things to be beleived so this all things to be desired To this we reply Granting this first That this sicknesse is Epidemicall universally spread over all men and over all in man And the Memory the Soule 's store-house is fearefully tainted with it most unhappily and tenaciously retentive of all that is evill So as what was but once heard seene or done giving pleasure to the flesh will be kept in the Memory and repeated there who knowes how long and how often yet take-it-in by the way as often as any evill seene heard or done is remembred with delight so often is it acted over againe But now when any thing truely Good is Commended to it and received-in of how short continuance it is there If a Hand Allmighty lodgeth it not there and keepeth it there The memory of it selfe and in it's owne nature is a very Step-dame to Good or like a very leaking vessell This is her Sicknesse and if it be not Cured it will be our woe And now to draw nearer to the point in hand we cannot possibly see though we hope we Crie for His eye-salve which onely maketh to see how the sicknesse of the memory causing the praying man to forget what he would have remembred and made his request to God for Can be helped for to this particular we speake by adjoining His Lords prayer We crave leave to aske this Godly Minister what he hath forgot to petition his God in behalfe of the people to whome he is made an Over-seer He hath not Confessed their sinnes so fully nor so feelingly as he should and thought to have done This may be He knew full well some speciall mercies his people had received from God and he quite forgot to render God the praise He knew as well some speciall mercies his people had not and yet felt not any want of them as a seeing eye and heareing eare but he quite forgot here also He was well acquainted with some particular misery that was felt by some one or more of his people being sicknesse and sorrow upon the flesh and another misery he might know of also which is the misery of all miseries because not felt nor feared yet clapt fast upon them perversnesse of Spirit and hardnesse of heart Here the Godly man's memory may fal●e him also In all these he might not petition God as he ought and haply thought to have done and in some of these perticulars his memory wholy failed him Now he will rele●ve himselfe and his people whose good he specially intends by saying the Lords prayer But is that the way to releive himselfe or them We humbly offer it to the thoughts of every intelligent Man Will his repeating the Lords prayer before the people help them when they are returned home to Confesse their sin there more fully or feelingly doth that prayer supply them with words that way or to praise God for the mercies they have or to pray unto Him for what they would have for the takeing away the Stone in the heart if it be not all over Stone as desirerously as we would have the Stone taken-out of the Bladder but is there one expresse * word in the Lords prayer that helpes to the putting-up that great petition wee meddle not with what is Comprehended there which exceeds the Comprehension of an Angell but with what is expressed there And to our seeming there is not in that prayer one expresse word there that can helpe the praying man in all or any of those perticulars before-mentioned To close this we conceive it to be thus every godly person going to prayer goes to God in the Name of Jesus Christ Through Him by the Spirit he hath an accesse unto the Father Eph. 2. And oh what a deale of Eloquence and Rhetorick is in this one word Father how it works upon the bowells of the Father upon the bowells of the Child too so as the Child cannot chuse but crave the Father cannot chuse but grant what ever is good for the Child There is a reciprocall worke still a reflexing Act of the soule The Father's bowells yerne towards the Child The Child's bowells yerne towards the Father But we recall our selves being to deliver our thoughts what a Godly Minister doth when he hath entred the pulpit Surely in desire and endeavour he comes wholy off from himselfe he useth all that Ged hath given him and layeth out the very Male of his flocke for that very end given him but he trusteth it not he hath no Confidence in the flesh It is fully and wholy set upon his God He loves to be trusted and cannot be trusted too much as the creature cannot be trusted too little In a word he rolles himselfe upon God putts himselfe as he can into the good Spirits hand Leaves his matters there humblie expects supplies from Him He is in the place where he should be unto which his God hath called him upon his worke which he doth with more Delight than to receive his wages Now he would not doubt but that the good Spirit to Whome he hath committed himselfe and his worke will carry him through it both in praying and preaching And now for now we are closeing the point notwithstanding the sicknesse of his memory and many other his infirmities who knowes how many yet he knowes Whome he hath trusted and upon Whose score and that He is able to leade him unto his worke and to carry him through his worke nor dares he for his life take a dead letter * such a thing is the Lords prayer as uttered by Man as dead as other letters he reades in the same Chapter he will not we were saying take a dead letter to helpe the living Spirit These are our thoughts of this matter Fourthly We have heard in the Last place this alledged for the saying the Lord's prayer at the end of their owne prayer our prayers are very imperfect we all know and God may neglect them therefore wee adde the Lords prayer to the end of our's that perfect and compleate prayer which the Father will not neglect We replie Granting as before

beleives much prayes much though he say not a word A good life is a good prayer it is a continued prayer as you have read Wee will close with this Traine up a child saith the wisdome of God in his way of Gods prescribing and when he is old he will not depart from it As if he had said He will be the better for it while he liveth Traine up a child in formes Prov. 22. 6. according to the wisdome of the flesh and when he is old he will not depart from them As if wee had said he will be the worse for them while he liveth if grace interpose not These are too sweet to the flesh for the flesh to leave these are all the comfort the flesh hath while the man is living but dying shall stand the man in no more stead than a paper wall can defend against a Cannon shott or the Cawle of the heart against the paw of a Lion Wee will shutt up with this and so call to remembrance That there was an huge great person who had learnt that in his Cradle which he could not unlearne on his throne and it was no small dishonour to him So may a child be taught a forme of prayer in his cradle which if through the favour of the times he be admitted to the pulpitt he will use there also and so exact he will be therein that all that heare him may conclude he was taught that forme from his cradle It is important sure and very momentous else Quintillian wee rather mention him had not been so full and large upon it what choice wee should make of Nurses because commonly these parle first with the child in the morning and last at night and much all the day long And if they be bad not knowing their dutie or carelesse of what they know wee are like to have as was once said wirtily but truely a child or a boy of him all his life long The summe is this Be well advised about that you teach your child in the morning of his yeares he will savour of it to the evening of the same Nurses or mothers who should make all commonly marre all if speciall grace interpose not No more for this containes much if not all Now we will Contract what hath been said of this subject prayer and the scope whereto it tends and give it in this breif We have shewen what a serious worke it is and what a slight and vaine thing formes are wee have declared against a wicked mans prayer for so the Lord himselfe doth it is an abomination yet it is his dutie to pray though a greater abomination it is to say the Lords prayer Wee have shutt it out of the Closet It is too short for Closet-worke And too long for an after prayer being who knowes how full of heavenly sense and spirituall meaning Therefore wee have cutt it off from the Ministers prayer in the pulpit If he will sett it too againe be it at his pleasure it may be to his perill Wee have questioned it very much and endeavoured to put it out of question that John did not teach his Disciples to pray by giving them formes of prayer to say Wee have cleared it to be a parents dutie to teach his child to pray and as wee could wee have directed his practise and concluded That a parent teacheth not his child to pray that gives him formes of prayer to say for that they learne without teaching too prompt and ready that way The Spirit of the Lord teacheth parent and child to pray and the first thing the Spirit teacheth wee thinke is to say that they cannot pray yet wee should tempt God if wee our selves should not pray and teach our children so to doe to pray that they may be enabled to pray To shutt up The God of all graces and father of mercies in and through His Sonne gives forth no temporall much lesse eternall salvation no common mercy much lesse any spirituall grace which is eternall to His marvelously Psal 4. 3. seperated ones His gratious Saints but He will stirre them up to inquire after Him first before He gives it They shall aske before they have and but aske and have yet not for their asking Now it is marvelous to consider Satans devises here that implacable enemy and adversary of all righteousnesse He perswades the wicked to sit downe fully content with their condition and satisfied with common mercies and not pray at all and if they will be praying it shall be but ●prating and babling A meere prophaneing of Gods Name if not blaspheming If they will pray as the most will they shall pray in anothers words and no matter in whose name by a booke or without it by the memorie never with the heart unlesse for the remooving of some plague felt or feared But never about the plague of the heart the plague indeed And for these gratious Saints This adversary shewes himselfe such an one in no one thing more than in this To keepe them from praying but if that cannot be then he imployes all his force policie and might to hinder and interrupt prayer and for the effecting of this what will he cast in and how readily doth flesh comply with him But these know whom they have trusted And that His grace shall be sufficient for them AMEN Postscript WEE have purposely forborne to discharge our Treatise of that charge of blasphemie once and againe charged upon it wee have given a marke in the margine all along where the yong-man in the name perhaps of his elders enters not his dissent onely but the charge of blasphemie against us It is humbly referred to God and His Scriptures to judge how just that charge is And if it shall please those whom God hath made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Leter but of the Spirit for the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life to give-in thei● judgement here also we are assured it shall be according to Truth Wee will adde two words more The one we borrow from him whose words we shall hereafter set downe It is far more facile to give the hardest Censures than to Answer the easiest Arguments The other is this which one of us has read some where A good Cause when plainely told is learnedly pleaded especially if a Meeke Moses or just Joshua be the Judge thereof So we come to set downe here as was specified upon the Title page the words of that holy and learned Man who speakes to all matters he undertakes in the Name of his God to speake unto after his manner which is to say all that can be said in any subject whatsoever This encomie or high Commendations was given to Grotius by one of our own in some matters of the highest concernment relating to our deare Lord and Christ of the same perswasion with him And so thought it not enough to Commend the said man without any exception but he must