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A63653
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An apology for authorized and set forms of litvrgie against the pretence of the spirit 1. for ex tempore prayer : 2. formes of private composition.
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Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing T289; ESTC R7631
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60,949
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100
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helped by industry and Gods blessing upon it and the revelations or the supplies of matter in holy Scripture will be very farre to seek having neither reason promise nor experience of his side For why should the spirit of prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of faith as Saint Paul calls it acquired by humane meanes using divine aides that is by our endeavours in hearing reading catechizing desires to obey and all this blessed and promoted by God this produces faith Nay it is true of us what Christ told his Apostles sine me nihil potestis facere not nihil magnum aut difficile but omninò nihil as Saint Austin observes Without me ye can doe nothing and yet we were not capable of a Law or of reward or punishment if neither with him nor without him we were able to doe any thing And therefore although in the midst of all our co-operation we may say to God in the words of the Prophet Domine omnia opera operatus es in nobis O Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us yet they are opera nostra still God works and we work First is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Gods grace is brought to us he helps and gives us abilities and then expects our duty And if the spirit of prayer be of greater consequence then all the works God hath wrought in us besides and hath the promise of a speciall prerogative let the first be proved and the second be showne in any good Record and then I will confesse the difference The Parallel of this Argument I the rather urge because sect. 20 I find praying in the Holy Ghost joyned with graces which are as much Gods gifts and productions of the spirit as any thing in the world and yet which the Apostle presses upon us as duties and things put into our power to be improved by our industry and those are faith in which I before instanced and charity But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God All of the same consideration Faith and Prayer and Charity all gifts of the Spirit and yet build up your selves in faith and keep your selves in love and therefore by a parity of reason improve your selves in the spirit of Prayer that is God by his Spirit having supplied us with matter let our industry and co-operations per modum naturae improve these gifts and build upon this foundation Thus the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of adoption sect. 21 the Spirit of counsell the Spirit of grace the Spirit of meeknesse the Spirit of wisdome And without doubt he is the fountaine of all these to us all and that for ever and yet it cannot reasonably be supposed but that we must stir up the graces of God in us co-operate with his assistances study in order to counsell labour and consider in order to wisdome give all diligence to make our calling and election sure in order to our adoption in which we are sealed by the Spirit Now these instances are of gifts as well as graces and since the daies of wonder and need of miracles is expired there is no more reason to expect inspiration of gifts then of graces without our endeavours It concerns the Church rather to have these secured than those and yet the Spirit of God puts it upon the condition of our co-operation for according to the Proverb of the old Moralists Deus habet sinum facilem non perforatum God's bosome is apt and easie to the emission of graces and affistances but it is not loose and ungirt something must be done on our part we must improve the talents and swell the bank for if either we lay them up in a napkin or spend them suppresse the Spirit or extinguish it we shall dearly account for it In the meane time if we may lose the gifts by our sect. 22 owne fault we may purchase them by our diligence if we may lessen them by incuriousnesse we may increase them by study if we may quench the spirit then also we may reenkindle it all which are evident probation that the Holy Ghost gives us assistances to improve our naturall powers and to promote our acquisite and his aides are not inspirations of the habit or infusions of a perfect gift but a subliming of what God gave us in the stock of nature and art to make it in a sufficient order to an end supernaturall and divine The same doctrine we are taught by Saint Paul's exhortation sect. 23 to Timothy Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery And againe stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands If there be any gifts of the Holy Ghost and spirituall influences dispensed without our co-operation and by inspiration of the intire power it is in ordination and the persons so ordeined are most likely to receive the gift of prayer if any such thing be for the edification of the Church they being the men appointed to intercede and to stand between God and the people and yet this gift of God even in those times when they were dispensed with miracle and assistances extraordinary were given as all things now are given by the meanes also of our endeavour and was capable of improvement by industry and of defaillance by neglect and therefore much rather is it so now in the daies of ordinary ministration and common assistances And indeed this argument beside the efficacy of its sect. 24 perswasion must needs conclude against the Men to whom these adversaria are addressed because themselves call upon their Disciples to exercise the gift of prayer and offer it to consideration that such exercising it is the way to better it and if naturall endowments and artificiall endeavours are the way to purchase new degrees of it it were not amisse they did consider a little before they begin and did improve their first and smallest capacities before they ventured any thing in publike by way of addresse to Almighty God For the first beginnings are certainly as improveable as the next degrees and it is certaine they have more need of it as being more imperfect and rude Therefore when ever Gods Spirit hath given us any capacities or assistances any documents motions desires or any aides whatsoever they are therefore given us with a purpose we should by our industry skill and labour improve them because without such co-operation the intention is made void and the worke imperfect And this is exactly the doctrine I plainly gather from sect. 25 the objected words of Saint Paul The Spirit helpeth our infirmities {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it is in the Greek collaborantem adjuvat It is an ingeminate expression of our labours And that supposes us to have faculties
Nothing can be regular and orderly that is hasty and precipitate and therefore unlesse Religion be the most imprudent trifling and inconsiderable thing and that the worke of the Lord is done well enough when it is done negligently or that the sanctuary hath the greatest beauty when it hath the least order it will concerne us highly to thinke our prayers and religious offices are actions fit for wise men and therefore to be done as the actions of wise men use to be that is deliberately prudently and with greatest consideration Well then in the nature of the thing ex tempore sect. 12 formes have much the worse of it But it is pretended that there is such a thing as the gift of prayer a praying with the spirit Et nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia Gods Spirit if he pleases can doe his worke as well in an instant as in long premeditation And to this purpose are pretended those places of Scripture which speak of the assistance of Gods spirit in our prayers Zech. 12. 10. And I will poure upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Hierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication But especially Rom. 8. 26. likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered c. From whence the Conclusion that is inferred is in the words of Saint Paul that we must pray with the Spirit therefore not with set formes therefore ex tempore The Collection is somewhat wild for there is sect. 13 great independency in the severall parts and much more is in the Conclusion then was virtually in the premises But such as it is the Authours of it I suppose will owne it And therefore we will examine the maine designe of it and then consider the particular meanes of its perswasion quoted in the Objection It is one of the Priviledges of the Gospel and the sect. 14 benefit of Christ's ascension that the Holy Ghost is given unto the Church and is become to us the fountain of gifts and graces But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our naturall faculties of our art and industry not extraordinary miraculous and immediate infusions of habits and gifts That without Gods spirit we cannot pray aright that our infirmities need his help that we know not what to aske of our selves is most true and if ever any Heretick was more confident of his owne naturalls or did ever more undervalue Gods grace than the Pelagian did yet he denies not this but what then therefore without study without art without premeditation without learning the Spirit gives the gift of prayer and it is his grace that without any naturall or artificiall help makes us pray ex tempore no such thing the Objection proves nothing of this 15. Here therefore we will joyne issue whether the sect. 15 gifts and helps of the Spirit be immediate infusions of the faculties and powers and perfect abilities Or that he doth assist us onely by his aides externall and internall in the use of such meanes which God and nature hath given to man to ennoble his soule better his faculties and to improve his understanding That the aides of the Holy Ghost are onely assistances to us in the use of naturall and artificiall meanes I will undertake to prove and from thence it will evidently follow that labour and hard study and premeditation will soonest purchase the gift of prayer and ascertaine us of the assistance of the Spirit and therefore set Formes of Prayer studied and considered of are in a true and proper sense and without Enthusiasme the fruits of the Spirit First Gods Spirit did assist the Apostles by waies extraordinary sect. 16 and fit for the first institution of Christianity but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately Thus the Holy Ghost brought to their Memory all sect. 17 things which Iesus spake and did and by that meanes we come to know all that the Spirit knew to be necessary for us the Holy Ghost being Authour of our knowledge by being the fountaine of the Revelation and we are therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} taught by God because the Spirit of God revealed the Articles of our Religion that they might be known to all ages of the Church and this is testified by S. Paul he gave some Apostles and some Prophets c. for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the of Son God unto a perfect man c. This was the effect of Christ's ascension when he gave gifts unto men that is when he sent the Spirit the verification of the promise of the Father The effect of this immission of the Holy Ghost was to fill all things and that for ever to build up the Church of God untill the day of consummation so that the Holy Ghost abides with the Church for ever by transmitting those revelations which he taught the Apostles to all Christians in succession Now as the Holy Ghost taught the Apostles and by them still teaches us what to believe so it is certaine he taught the Apostles how and what to pray and because it is certaine that all the rules concerning our duty in prayer and all those graces which we are to pray for are transmitted to us by Derivation from the Apostles whom the Holy Ghost did teach even to that very purpose also that they should teach us it follows evidently that the gift of prayer is a gift of the Holy Ghost and yet to verifie this Proposition we need no other immediate inspiration or extraordinary assistance than that we derive from the Holy Ghost by the conveyance of the Apostolicall Sermons and Writings The reason is the same in Faith and Prayer and if sect. 18 there were any difference in the acquisition or reception faith certainly needs a more immediate infusion as being of greatest necessity and yet a grace to which we least cooperate it being the first of graces and lesse of the will in it then any other But yet the Holy Ghost is the Authour of our faith and we believe with the Spirit it is Saint Paul's expression and yet our belief comes by hearing and reading the holy Scriptures and their interpretations Now reconcile these two together Faith comes by hearing and yet is the gift of the Spirit and it saies that the gifts of the Spirit are not extasies and immediate infusions of habits but helps from God to enable us upon the use of the meanes of his owne appointment to believe to speake to understand to prophesie and to pray But whosoever shall looke for any other gifts of the sect. 19 Spirit besides the parts of nature