were so sensible of their own Inability to Pray should lay aside this Divine and Perfect Composure and prefer their own weak and imperfect Abilities of expression before it This is to have vain and unworthy Thoughts of the Apostles and too agreeable to those you have of your self Fourthly This may be proved from the Testimony and Practice of those that lived near the time of Christ and his Apostles who acknowledge it as a Form delivered by Christ and did receive and use it accordigly Lucian who liv'd in the Days of Trajan Luc. in Philip. makes mention of a Prayer used by Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning with Our Father Tertullian tells us Christus novam Orationis formam determinavit Tertul. de Orat. cap. 1. cap. 9. Christ appointed a new Form of Prayer And after adds That the Christians never omitted the use of it St. Cyprian speaking of the Lord's Prayer calls it Cypr. de Orat Dom p. 310. Publica nobis Communis Oratio Publick and Common Prayer from the General use of it and more largly declares that Christ consulting the Salvation of his People Cypt. de Orat Dom delivered to them himself a Form of Prayer and then exhorts to the use of it in these words That the Father when we Pray may own the Words of the Son And in another place since we have Christ for our Advocate let us express the Words of our Advocate for how much more effectually shall we obtain what we ask in Christ's Name Hieron ad Pelag. lib. 3. c. 5. if we ask in his Prayer St. Jerome tells us Docuit Christus Apostolos suos ut quotidie c. i. e. Chirst taught his Apostles that every day believing in him they should say Our Father which art in Heaven Aug Epist 89. And St. Austin Omnibus necessaria est Oratio Dominica c. The Lord's Prayer is necessary for all even the Apostles themselves that every one should say unto God Forgive us our trespasses c. Hom. 42 And elsewhere he tells us Ad Altare Dei quotidie dicitur Oratio Dominica the Lords Prayer is daily said at God's Altar Greg. Epist Lib. 7. And St. Gregory assures us that the Apostles at the Consecration of the Eucharist did always make use of the Lord's Prayer If we come down to the time of the Reformation we shall find the Protestant Writers generally acknowledging it Calv. Inst l. 4. c. 1. sect 23. to be a Prescribed Form Calvin calls it a Form dictated by Christ and saith that Holy Men daily repeat it by Christs Command Consid Cons Aug. p. 177. The Classis of Walachrea tells us that In Omnibus Reformatarum Ecclesiarum Liturgijs c. In all the Publick Liturgies of the Reformed Churches the Lord's Prayer is prescribed to be used But besides all these Testimonies I will add one more which I persuade my self with you is Instar Omnium and will weigh more than all the rest and that is The Assembly of Divines at Westminster who in their Annotations on Luk 11. v. 2. have these Words concerning the Lord's Prayer It is the most Exact and Sacred Form of Prayer indited and taught the Disciples who were to teach the whole World the Rules and Practice of true Religion by Christ himself who is best able to teach his Servants to Pray And again Christ prescribed this Form of Prayer to be used by them Which are the very Words you carp at in my Sermon And now Sir are you not a Bold Man to call in Question a Truth confirmed by all these and many more Authorities that may be produced in this case I hope this was no wilful Mistake The best Excuse that can be made for it is Ignorance or Inadvertency However you may learn from hence to inform your self better and consider more for the future what you affirm or deny in such weighty Matters But your Comfort is You have the Learned Grotius on your side who tells us That Christ prescribed not this Prayer to be used as a Form but as a Pattern to make other Prayers by 'T is well known Sir that Grotius herein goes against the general Stream of Interpreters and is blamed by many Learned Men for this Extravagant and Unreasonable Conceit But I will see for once whether you will leave the Assembly of Divines to stick to Grotius and prefer his single Opinion before theirs For they tell us the quite contrary not only in the forecited place of their Annotations Direct after serm but in the very Directory it self Where you may read these Words The Lord's Prayer which Christ taught his Disciples is not only a pattern of Prayer but its self a Comprehensive Prayer and we recommend it to be used in the Prayers of the Church But we never read say you that our Lord or his Disciples did use these Words afterwards in Prayer tho' we read of their Praying in several places Is all that Christ and his Apostles said or did recorded think you in Holy Scripture We never read that the Apostles used that Form prescribed by Christ in Baptism In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost will it follow thence that they never used it 'T is sufficient that Christ commanded both these Forms and since we read nothing to the contrary we may well enough think that the Apostles were so religiously dutiful as to observe their Master's Command in both And that they who were sent by Christ to Teach and Baptize all Nations did both Teach and Baptize as he directed them And here I cannot forbear cautioning you against that Wild Principle of Believing nothing but what is expresly recorded in Holy Scripture For this will cause you shortly to follow some of your Disciples and to turn Anabaptist by denying Infant-baptism because we never read in Scripture that Infants were baptized But tho' there be no Express Record in Scripture of the Apostles using the Lord's Prayer of which some Learned Men have observed many Hints and Intimations Meric Cansab and Dr. Towerson on the Lord's Prayer yet we have abundant Testimony and Tradition for it from the Writings of the Fathers from the Age of the Apostles to the present Times And what greater Evidence can any reasonable Man desire And yet after all you say you do not Scruple the use of the Lord's Prayer as a Form in the saâ—â— Words Certainly Sir Our Saviour is much beholding to you that you have not so strong an Aversness to his Commands but that you can vouchsafe to say sometimes as he hath taught you But when alas will you arive to that piece of Humility and good Manners as to prefer His Words before your Own and in Honour at least to his Person if not in Obedience to his Command make it a Constant and Invariable part of your Devotion But you conclude like a Man resolv'd to stick to his Point
attend to two or more things at once these may serve to prevent those distractions which among other things are occasioned by the study of words it may hinder the rovings and wandrings of the fancy and help to keep the Mind more intent upon the main work and business of Prayer and one would think Sir that the natural and pious tendency of this notion to so good an end might have deserved a little favour and not have suffered you to have fallen so unmercifully upon so harmless and useful a thing Whereas on the other hand the placing the Gift of Prayer in a faculty of using new words and varied phrases may be a means to draw off the Soul from minding the Duty and set it a listning to the fineness and fluency of the words and this can serve only to gratifie itching Ears and to feed a Worm of Curiosity which sends many a gadding up and down to find out the finest words and loudest voice and the most melting Tone And this you know has occasioned a very great giddiness and instability in Religion Now here again it might be reasonably expected that what hath been known to produce such bad effects might have been a little suspected and that you would not so mightily triumph and glory in so dangerous a Notion And now my hand is in give me leave to tell you some of the many mischiefs that have proceeded from this verbal Gift of Prayer First Some have either willingly or weakly mistaken this for that extraordinary or supernatural Gift of Prayer that was granted to the Apostles and finding sometimes their Fancy heated by the fluency and sound of words have thought themselves divinely inspired Hence it is they talk so much of praying by the Spirit as if they felt the Holy Ghost working and speaking within them immediately dictating both the matter and words of their Prayers to them by which means they father upon the Holy Ghost all the hasty and fond productions of their own Brain Secondly This hath led many into a Contempt of all Godly Forms as dead things and made them place all the life and efficacy of Prayer in this pretended Gift by which means they are brought to cast off all regular and sober Devotion and turn their Religion into spiritual Phrenzy and Enthusiasm Thirdly This often proves an occasion of great Pride for many have been puffed up with a vain conceit of this Gift and finding others struck with an admiration of their parts easily come to admire and fall in Love with themselves and think that God as well as Man is delighted to hear them talk Hence they grow refractory and disobedient to their Superiours and think their enjoyning any thing in Publick Worship though merely for Decency and Order a disparagement to their Abilities and not fit to be laid on Persons of their interest and familiarity with God Fourthly and Lastly This Gift has proved a great instrument of Division and is at this day the greatest Idol and Support of all our Sectaries amongst whom he that pleases and excels in this Gift shall be sure to have most Followers An instance of this I think you find at home where the Leader of another Conventicle begins to draw from yours and surely Sir 't is time to look about you for if his Tongue runs nimbler than yours your Disciples may be apt to leave you in the Lurch and run after him or if his Voice be more Charming or his Tone more Taking you are lost that way too In short when Men leave the well composed Devotion of an established Church they have nothing to fix them which makes them stagger and reel like a drunken Man running from one Sect to another till they have run themselves out of all Religion and settled at last in downright Atheism and Infidelity Of this too many sad Instances may be given I could tell you Sir of other direful effects of their mistaken Notion of the Gift of Prayer but I am loth to be tedious I am SIR Your humble Servant M. H. March 19. 1696. LETTER III. To J. M. SIR I Received yours of the 20th Instant which for the most part is just as I feraed a downright running away as any that had Eyes in his Head might have easily seen And to make you sensible of it I must again tell you what we are about and then shew you how far you are gone from it The Question then between us is concerning the Gift of Prayer sc Whether it consists in an Ability of Expressions or in the pious Motions and Elevations of the Heart Now though I gave you a strict charge to keep close to this and repeated it over and over again lest you should forget it yet First In the very beginning of your Letter you are gone from thence into Devonshire and tell me how the Catchpoles laid in wait and pursued those that haunted Conventicles and is not this a plain Excursion Within a few Lines of this I find you running after Bishop Ken to let him know that you did not call him Bishop and then give the reason for it too because he hath no Diocess but yet because he once had one and there may be some good in him you are content that he should be called the late Bishop And is not this a pretty Excursion think you and very much to the Gift of Prayer Immediately on this you are running to the present Bishop to acquaint him that he is no Intruder but that the Diocess is his whatever persons may say or think to the contrary Admirable close to the point Presently on this you are running into France to tell King James to his Face that he can only be call'd the late King but none must think or call him King now for the Judges have given their Opinion say you that 't is Criminal to give him that Title Is not this wonderful pertinent or rather is it not an Excursion with a witness Shortly hereupon you put the Question whether a Conventicle be an illegal Assembly This I suppose you take to be more home to the Gift of Prayer because it speaks up for the Place where this Talent is vented But is there no difference think you between what is Established and what is only wink'd at and suffered to go unpunished If you will needs have an answer your breaking the Bond of Peace and Unity by Conventicles is near about as lawful as breaking the Bond of Wedlock by Adultery and if either be permitted 't is just as Moses's Bill of Divorce not for the goodness of the thing but for the hardness of Mens Hearts After this you tell me that to the Catalogue of Bishops that lie under your Censure you can add more and there is no doubt of this though I thought I had made your Authority and Censures wide enough when I extended it to all other Bishops But still you see how admirably you speak to the purpose Soon after this you tell
offer shall be fairly heard in due time yet that time is not yet come For though in Divine Revelations Authority may go before Reason because we are to believe what God saith though it may seem without above or against Reason yet in Humane Testimonies Reason is to go before Authority Because we are not to believe any Man without shewing good Reason for what he saith So that we are in the right way for satisfaction and therefore you must not go out of it your self nor seek to draw me out of it by any impertinent Excursions But you tell me you have other things wherein you desire satisfaction Ay Sir that is one of your Scurvy-Tricks and a plain Hint and Intimation of your design of running away I 'll hear nothing of that till we have finished the Point in hand No Sir I will not step a Foot out of the way though it were to prove That Extempore Prayer was brought into these Kingdoms by Romish Emissaries which in due time shall be proved to you by as full and clear Evidence as any Wise Man can desire You see Sir what pains I am forced to take to hedge you in and keep you from flying off And if after all this you will still be gadding and running away you will not only appear to be a Fugitive and Volatile Animal but likewise shew What an Able Champion you are like to make to defend the Dissenting Cause In the mean time I am SIR Your Humble Servant M. H. March 29. 1697. LETTER V. To J. M. SIR HEaring nothing from you these three or four Posts I have had the leisure to go on further in the Perusal of your Letter Where I find you cannot yet come off from that frivolous Distinction between the Gift and Grace of Prayer for you tell me these Terms must not be confounded but carefully distinguished by all that would speak Intelligibly in this Matter Now I think these Terms have rather confounded than clear'd up your Understanding in this Matter and hindred you from Speaking or Writing any thing Intelligibly about it For this is a Distinction without a Difference as I proved in my third Letter But finding you are not very quick or ready to take a thing I 'll try to make it a little more plain and obvious to your Understanding for if it appear that the Gift of Prayer is the Grace of Prayer and the Grace the Gift of it you will then see the Absurdity of it which you may by this Argument The Faculty of performing the Duty of Prayer aright is the Gift of Prayer But the Faculty of performing the Duty of Prayer aright is likewise the Grace of Prayer Ergo The Gift of Prayer is the same thing with the Grace of Prayer Et vicissim The Major is proved from the nature of a Gift or Talent of a thing As Of Writing Reading Speaking Painting Carving c. which are nothing else but Abilities of doing these several things in the best Manner The Minor must remain firm till you can shew any more in the Grace of Prayer than a gracious Gift vouchsafed by the Spirit of God to dispose and enable to the right performance of the Duty of Prayer And therefore the Conclusion must follow That these Terms are Identical and import the same thing So that really Sir This Distinction is much like his who distinguish'd between Operation and Working saying that Pepper was hot in Operation but cold in Working And 't is every Jot as absurd to say that a Man may be hot in the Gift but cold in the Grace of Prayer But because I find you too apt to be impos'd upon by Terms and Phrases without knowing or attending to the true Sense and Meaning of them I shall for the better clearing of this Matter enquire 1. Into the Original of this Distinction Whence it came and of what standing it is in the World 2. Into the Occasion of it Or what it is that hath betray'd and misled so many into it First then Whence Sir had you this Distinction and in what Mint was it coyn'd If you look over the Bible you will not find this Phrase of the Gift of Prayer from one end to the other You may read there of the Gift of Tongues and I think a Gift of Utterance but for the Gift of Prayer in those very Terms you must seek somewhere else And if you are at a loss for the first Term of the Distinction and cannot find the Gift of Prayer there then pray take the Bible again and see whether you can find the other Term of the Grace of Prayer there And if you are at a loss for that too and cannot find the Grace of Prayer in those express Terms mentioned Then to be sure that Distinction never came from the Holy Scriptures where neither of the Terms are to be found Whence then might it come And who was the Author of this famous Distinction Why I have searched into some of the Centuries after the Apostles to see whether any of the Ancient Fathers had heard or spake any thing of it But as far as my search can reach at present I find no News or Tydings of any such Distinction among them but rather the quite contrary Aust Epist 105. St. Austine plainly makes the Terms identical For he tells us Ipsa Oratio inter Gratiae munera reperitur Prayer it self is to be reckon'd among the Works of Grace Hil. on Matth. 5. St. Hilary wills us Orare ad Deum non multiloquio sed Conscientia i. e. Not by pouring out many Words but with the purity of the Heart and Conscience Cypr. de orat dom St. Cyprian tells us that Deus non Vocis sed Cordis Auditor est i. e. God hath no regard to the Voice or any Ability of Expressions Basil de orat but to the Heart only St. Basil speaking of Prayer saith We do not at all define it to a business of Words nor an ability of Expressions And Clemens Alexandrinus gives a Reason for it Clem. Al. Strom. Lib. 7. Because saith he we can speak distinctly unto God tho' with Silence and can utter loud inward Cryes where no Voice is heard A Learned Divine who hath made a narrow and particular Search into the Writings of the Fathers about this matter tells us Dr Falken That all the Ancient Writers discourse of Prayer as a work of the Heart and Soul and not of Words Whereas you discourse of it as a Matter of Words and an Ability of Expressions So that this Distinction was not known in the days of these Fathers No nor in many hundred years after How then did this Distinction come into the World that hath made so much Noise and done so much Mischief in it Come I think you have pointed unto the first Author of it which if I mistake not is Bishop Wilkins Who in his Preface to the Gift of Prayer seems to own and acknowledge as
and to say with Grotius That our Lord did not command the recital of the Words nor tie up his Followers to Words and Syllables Pray Sir be not too obstinate Let the Ancient Fathers and Assembly of Divines have some small Sway with you Do but think Sir that 't is possible for you to be mistaken and consider what an Unreasonable piece of Confidence and Presumption it is to oppose the General Sense of the Christian Church in all Ages And if you could be perswaded to this ordinary piece of Modesty and Self-denyal there might be yet some hopes of your Conviction Your second Request is to explain to you the Meaning of the extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration about which you have some Exceptions which shall be answered in my next I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Wellwisher M. H. May 25. 1697. LETTER XV. To J. M. SIR HAving in my last given you I hope some Satisfaction about the Apostles using the Lord's Prayer according to their Master's Command and Direction I proceed now to give you some Account of that Extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration that was granted to them which you desire may be explained to you To which end you may observe 1 That when St. John the Herald and Harbinger of our Saviour Proclaimed him to the World he declared of him Mat. 3 1◠that he should Baptize his Disciples with the Holy Ghost meaning that the Holy Spirit should come down visibly upon some of them to assure them of the Truth of his Doctrine and to enable them to Preach and Propagate it to the whole World 2 In the next place you may observe that when our Blessed Saviour first called and gathered his Twelve Apostles among other things for their Encouragement he bid them To take no thought before-hand what they should Speak Mark 13.11 nor to Premeditate for it should be given them in that hour what they should Speak for it is not ye that Speak saith he but the Spirit of my Father that Speaketh in you meaning That they should find that assistance from a Divine Spirit that should help them far better in the Work they were called to than any Fore-thought or Premeditation of their own could do for the Spirit of God should Speak in and through them 3 Again Christ a little before his Ascension into Heaven promis'd to send them the Holy Ghost to be their Paraclete Joh. 14.16 17. ◠Joh. 2.1 which Word signifies not only a Comforter to comfort them in his absence but an Advocate to plead their Cause by teaching them to pray and forming their Petitions for them Now upon the day of Penticost which is our Whit-sunday the Spirit according to Christ's most Gracious Promise was poured out upon them the Holy Ghost coming down on the Apostles in the Sound of a mighty Rushing Wind as a Token of Inspiration and sate upon their Heads in the Appearance of Fire to represent those pious Ardours or Fervency of Spirit that should accompany their Devotion And likewise in the shape of Cloven Tongues to signifie that diversity of languages with which they were endow'd By this Descent of the Holy Ghost the Apostles were furnished with a great Variety of Spiritual Gifts many of which are mentioned by St. Paul in sundry parts of his Epistles Among these as St. Chrysostom tells us Chrys on Rom 8 26. was a Gift of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Spirit Zach. 12.10 that was promised to be poured out is by the Prophet Zachary stiled a Spirit of Grace and Supplications And St. Paul tells us Rom. 8.26 That this Spirit helped their Infirmities in Prayer For God saith that Father then gave Gifts which are also called Spirits particularly mentioning this Gift or Spirit of Prayer and he that had it saith he pray'd for the whole Multitude By which it appears that the Publick Offices of the Church were in those Days performed by these extraordinary Gifts the Holy Ghost inspiring into them both the Matter and Words of their Prayers without any help or recourse to their own Invention And this Gift was generally accompanied with the Gift of Tongues whereby the Apostles who were before but ignorant Fisher-men and Mechanicks and scarce understood their own Mother-tongue were by this means enabled to pray in the Languages of all Nations and declare to each of them the wonderful Works of God for so we read Acts 2.4 that the Apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance This the Men of all Nations who were then present at Jerusalem saw and heard to their great amazement for they marvelled to hear these Illiterate Galilaeans speak to Men of all Countries in their own Tongues And without any previous Learning or Meditation pray fluently in Languages they never heard or understood before And this Gift was likewise attended with the Interpretation of Tongues by which these Apostles were able to interpret in their own Vulgar Language those Prayers which themselves or others had uttered in an unknown Tongue Of this we read at large 1 Cor. 14. Now the design of these Supernatural and extraordinary Gifts was chiefly for the Confirmation and Propagation of the Gospel for so we read that Tongues were a Sign 1 Cor. 14.22 not to them that believed but to them that believed not meaning that these Divine Impulses and Inspirations were intended for the converting of Unbelievers and propagating the Faith of Christ And therefore to attest the Divinity of them they were frequently attended with the Gifts of Healing and Miracles For the Apostles did not only pray for the Sick but healed them too of all manner of Diseases with a word 's Speaking And by many miraculuos Signs and Tokens convinced the World that they were not only sent from God but that what they delivered were the immediate Dictates of his Holy Spirit Now these Extraordinary and Miraculous Gifts were peculiar only to the first Ages of Christianity and were calculated for those Times when the Christian Faith needed Confirmation by the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power for the Christian Religion being then new and forc'd to struggle with the Opposition both of Jew and Gentile These extraordinary Assistances were necessary to overcome the Prejudices of both and thereby to convert some and confirm others in the belief of it But when these had obtained their Effects by the spreading and success of the Gospel which prevailed every where And when the Spirit of God had Dictated and Finished the Holy Scriptures in which are sufficiently contained the Rules and Directions both for the matter and manner of our Prayers Then began this Extraordinary Gift by degrees to cease and the Duty of Prayer to be left to that Ordinary way and means in which it continues to this Day when by the Help of pious and publick Forms composed by the Church for publick Worship and
Ecclesiis The Apostles did set in order in the Church such things as had relation unto Order as Forms of Prayer and the like Dyonysius the Areopagite Eccl Hier. p. 77 who was Cotemporary with the Apostles testifies that there were then Forms of Prayer to which all the People said Amen And tho' some doubt hath been made whether the Book in which this is recorded be his yet 't is by all granted to be exceeding Ancient In the next Age to the Apostles Epist ad Trajan Pliny in his Letter to Trajan makes mention of set Forms of Hymns and Praises us'd by Christians at that time Soliti sunt saith he Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem And both Ignatius and Justin Martyr speak of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Common Prayer that was used among them In the second and third Centuries we find Origen in his Book against Celsus Origen contra cels lib. 1.8 speaking of Christians using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Appointed Prayers And in one of his Homilies citing a piece of Liturgy then in use Homil 11. Frequenter in Oratione dicimus Da Omnipotens da nobis partem cum Prophetis i.e. We often say in our Prayers give Almighty God O give us a Part with the Prophets St. Cyprian makes frequent mention of a Liturgy in the Church of Carthage telling us of the Ministers saying in the beginning of it Sursum Corda Lift up your Hearts and the People answering Habemus ad Dominum We lift them up unto the Lord. And the same is derived down and used in our Liturgy to this Day And Tertullian mentions the same Form of Abrenunciation that is still used in our Office of Baptism and withal adds That they had set Hymns for particular Times and Occasions Eusebius in the life of Constantine tells us that besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the established Prayers he ordered Forms of Prayer to be composed for the use of the Soldiers Euseb in Vit. Constant lib. 9. 〈◊〉 9 c. Which plainly shews his Approbation and Use of them If we go forward to the fourth and following Centuries we shall find our selves compass'd about with a whole Cloud of Witnesses St. Crysostome St. Ambrose St. Basil St. Austine with many others some whereof were Framers of Liturgies Besides many Counsils that decreed and established the use of them As Consil Laod. Can. 18. Carthag Can. 23. Milev Can. 12. If we come down to the Times of the Reformation we shall find all the Lutheran and Foreign Churches using Forms of Prayer for Publick Worship Yea if we come to Geneva and consult your beloved John Calvin the Father of Presbytery we shall find him using a constant Form of Prayer in his Publick Ministration And likewise composing Forms of Prayer for the use of Geneva which were approved of and established by the Authority of that City And for his Judgment of the use of Forms you may take it from himself who in his Letter to the Lord Protector thus declares himself Calv. Epist 87. For so much as concerns Forms of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rites Valde probo c. I much approve that they be determined so that it may not be lawful for Ministers in their Administrations to vary from them By which you may see how far you do degenerate from the Principles and are gone off from the Practices of the first Founder of your Sect. Yea 't is well known that those who were styled Puritans or Presbyterians before the great Rebellion Conscientiously used and frequented the Publick Liturgy and inveigh'd bitterly against all separation from it Thus you see the Christian Church ever since the days of Inspiration hath every where Celebrated Publick Worship by Liturgies or Composed Forms of Prayer So that Extempore or Free Prayer was a thing unknown to the primitive and purer Ages of the Church and plainly appears to be a late Invention By whom it was brought in and for what End I shall accquaint you very shortly In the mean time what can it be ascribed to but to your Ignorance or Pride thus to set up your Self against the Judgment and Practice of the whole Christian Church in all Ages 2. But you ask Secondly Who are those Uninspired Persons that have a Commission to compose these Prayers and likewise who are they that have Authority from God to impose them For the composing these Publick Prayers that undoubtedly lies in the Power of the Church which from the beginning of Christianity hath ever exercised it For Christ sent forth his Apostles not only to teach but to Rule and Govern his Church That all things in it may be done Decently and in Order and to the use of Edifying And Beza as was before observed tells us that Forms of Prayer were one of those things that related to Order and were settled by them 1 Tim. 3. ◠2. St. Paul directs Timothy to take care that Publick Prayers be made or composed for the use of the Church of Ephesus of which he was made an Over-seeer Now this being a matter of standing use and benefit to the Church is derived down to their Successours with whom Christ promised to be to the end of the World And therefore we find that the Rulers and Pastors of the Church meeting in Synods and Convocations have upon Mature Advice and Deliberation framed these Publick Liturgies ever since Mile Concil Can. 12.23 The Milevitan Council forbids the admitting any other Prayers in the Church for the Publick Worship of God than those that are so made and so approved lest thro' Ignorance or want of Care something might slip in that was contrary to the Faith But who are they say you that have Authority to impose them upon all Ministers who residing with are presumed best to know the Necessities of the People The Composing of Prayers we see is in the Church the Imposing them lyes in the Chief Magistrate who is Supreme in his Realm in all Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil For the Church being incorporated into the State neither of them can be well govern'd unless the Prince be Supreme in both And therefore a great Man hath hath told us That the Church directing and the Sovereign Enacting have ever had this Power since the State became Christian Neither can we see how things can be better ordered than that what is well considered and tendered by the Church should be ratified by the Sanction and Authority of the Prince But you it seems think your self wiser than both and can order these things better by your present Conceptions than they upon all their Deliberation and that because you residing with can better know the Necessities of the People When Sir will you be so modest as to think the Rulers in Church and State better Judges of the general Necessities of the People than you or any private Person Is there any thing in the
fear you suspect your Cause too much to leave it in those Hands You are sensible that an Hundred to One is great Odd's and know pretty well what a scurvy Reflexion 't is upon any Notion to say of it 'T is but one Docters Opinion and yet at last I think in your Case 't will hardly amount to that However your Hopes are in Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins Let us see then upon what Grounds these Hopes are founded and what support the Conventicle is like to find from those two Pillars of the Church I begin then with Bishop Hall and here what you alledge from him is from his Writings in Vindication of the Liturgy A very unlikely Book to condemn what it designs to Vindicate or to set up Free Prayer above Forms which the Author daily us'd and practis'd Himself But what is it that you Quote from him Why Writing in Vindication of the Liturgy you say he hath these Words This doth not plead against all present Conceptions in Prayer or Preaching nor derogate any thing from the Reveren'd and Pious esteem of conceiv'd Prayer And who saith it does in its due time and place Doubtless Sir if you can but distinguish between publick and private Prayer you will soon see the sense of that Reverend Bishop and your own mistake in this Matter He is pleading you say in that Book for a publick and standing Liturgy for the more solemn and decent performance of publick Worship and having learnedly evinced the expediency both of the Use and Injunction of it he subjoyns these Words This doth not plead c. Meaning that tho the publick Service of God be best celebrated by a set prescribed Liturgy that People may know their Prayers and more readily joyn in them yet there are Seasons of private and secret Devotion wherein they are allow'd the Freedom of their own Conceptions and Expressions And what wise Man ever thought or said otherwise So that this gives no help or countenance at all to your Cause But if that will not do you bring in that Reverend Bishop farther saying I do from my Soul honour both I gladly make use of both and praise God for them as the gracious exercises of Christian Piety and the Effectual furtherances of Salvation Doubtless says he in the next Page all Christian Divines have ever had that Liberty in all the Churches that have ever profest the Name of Christ neither ought or can it be denyed to any either of the Foreign Churches or our own In the former Words that Reverend Father had shew'd his Opinion in these he lets us know his Practice in this Matter which is that he honoured both publick and private Devotion and gladly made use of the publick Liturgy of the Church in the one and of his own Free and conceived Prayers in the other A pious and excellent Practice Which I know no Christian Church does Condemn and I heartily wish that all who profess the Name of Christ would imitate But what is this to your using and preferring your own sudden Conceptions in publick Worship before and against an establish'd Liturgy Where does that pious and reverend Prelate give the least countenance to Conventicles or seperate Meetings in Opposition to publick Orders and Constitutions Or set up Free Prayer as a Decoy to draw People from the set Prayers of the Church This I am well assured you will never find in the Writings of that or any other Bishop And yet you seem to glory in this Quotation as if it stubb'd up all Liturgies by the Root and that no Forms of Prayer could ever appear more or stand before it Is it not strange that Men who so little understand themselves should think themselves wiser than all their Superiours And thus take upon them to teach or rather to mislead and delude others Using all their Arts to bring the People out of love with the Prayers of the Church and seducing them from all the wholsome Orders and Constitutions of it Take heed Sir that your Artifices and Impostures be not too visible for many well meaning People begin to discern and smell them out and if they be too gross and palpable it may prove of very dangerous Consequence for tho' Great is Diana of the Ephesians was a profitable Cry while it lasted yet when the People saw the Vanity of the Idol there was an end of the Silver Shrines If you would know the true Sense and Mind of Bishop Hall in this Matter you may find it in that mild and moderate Book of his called The Peace-maker in which he goes as far as possible for an Accommodation Yet there you may read these Words Sect. 7. page 52. 53. We are far from giving way to every Combination of Christians to run aside and to raise up a new Church of their own and to challenge all the Privileges incident to a lawful Church of Christ as equally due to their Segregation for this were to build up Babel instead of Jerusalem Faciunt Favos et Vespae as he goes on even Wasps meet together in some holes of Earth or hollow Trees and make Combs as well as the profitable Bees but none ever thought them worthy of a Hive c. Where you see that Reverend Prelate's Opinion concerning Conventicles and separate Meetings which he stiles Segregations from the unity of the Church and running aside from the Orders and Privileges of it yea he compares those that haunt them to Wasps who though they meet in Corners are yet more pernicious than profitable where they Nest Again in the same Section you may find these Words It may not be endured that in matters of Religion every Man should think what he lists and utter what he thinks and defend what he utters and publish what he defends and gather Disciples to what he publisheth this Liberty or Licentiousness rather would be the Bane of any Church With much more to the same purpose And now what think you Sir is the Famous and Learned Bishop Hall a Friend to Separation and Extempore-Effusions in publick Worship Nay is he not a plain Enemy to all Confusion and Disorders of that Nature Does he not in that forecited Treatise passionately bewail these things as the Wounds and Blemishes of the Church And earnestly entreat and exhort all Christians against them This you will find at large if you will peruse that and many other of his pious Writings Thus you see how little you have got by this Quotation and how you have mist your Aim in bringing that Reverend Father to Countenance your Dreams and Delusions But you have one Twig more to hang by and that is the Authority of Bishop Wilkins How far that will hold shall be examined in my next with which if you have nothing more to offer I purpose to close up I am Sir Yours M. H. June 25 1697. LETTER XX. To J. M. SIR I Shewed in my last what little Countenance your Conventicles and Free
much For in the beginning of the Preface he tells us That little or nothing was ever written on this Subject before him and seems to wonder that this excellent Art should be hid from all former Ages and reserv'd for his discovery in the latter Days In the next Page he repeats it again and saith For ought he could find there was little written of it in any Language In the Close of the Preface he speaks home and makes himself plainly the first Author of it for he tells us he drew up the substance of his Book many years before he knew so much as any one Author who had formerly attempted this Subject So that this is a mere Novelty by the Author 's own Confession And yet you think he has infinitely oblig'd Mankind by presenting the World with this singular Gift But I think he had no such high Thoughts of it himself in the latter and wiser part of his Life And would willingly have recall'd this Gift when he saw what bad use was made of it But I shall give you a more particular account of this in a Letter by it self In the mean time let us proceed Secondly To enquire what might be the Occasion of this Distinction between the Gift and Grace of Prayer And 't is more than probable that this proceeded from an unhapy mistaking a Readiness of speech for the Gift of Prayer There is indeed in some Men a great Faculty and Readiness of Speech whereby they can express themselves with greater Fluency and less Hesitation than others And this as all other Faculties of Body and Mind may be stiled the Gift of God But that this is not the Gift of Prayer I shall prove to you by this Argument The Gift of Prayer must be something that is peculiar and appropriated to Prayer for else it may be the Gift of any other thing as well as Prayer But this Readiness of Speech is not peculiarly appropriate unto Prayer For we know it may be and daily is applyed to many other Subjects and Occasions as the Lawyer discovers it in pleading And men of Parts daily shew it in matters of common Converse and Observation and Therefore The Readiness of Speech you so much talk of cannot be the Gift of Prayer Besides if the Gift of Prayer should lie in such a Readiness of Speech what shall they do that want it 'T is most certain that the far greatest part of Christians have neither a Readiness of Mind to conceive nor a Readiness of Tongue to express for themselves such Prayers as are sit to be offer'd up to the Divine Majesty What then Shall they not pray at all Or can they pray without the Gift Why say some in Publick let them attend to the Ministers Words and Pray by his Gift that is Let them be tyed up to his Words which tho' sudden and unknown to them before-hand must be a Form to them and preferr'd too before the Publick Deliberate Forms of Godly Men yea of the whole Churches composing And is not this an excellent way think you to preserve Sober Serious and True Devotion and to help Men to agree and speak the same thing in the Publick Assemblies But what shall they do in Private Why there you would have them Try and Practise and Learn this Art Yes And whilst they are studying and beating their Brains about Matter and Words what will become of the Heart How shall they watch that Or excite those inward Motions and Desires that are fit to attend their Petitions Since the Mind can't attend two such different things at once I fear Sir that some by trying to practise themselves and hearing it irreverently and rudely practised by others have wholly laid aside the Duty and settled in a total Neglect and Carelesness about it These are some of the many doleful Evils with which your Notion of the Gift of Prayer is unluckily clogg'd All which are wisely prevented by placing the Gift or Grace of Prayer where it should be viz. in the Heart and the Pious Motions and Affections of the Soul And thence Perswading Men not so much to rely upon their own Abilities as to make use of those many Pious and Excellent helps both for Publick and Private Devotion with which the Wisdom and Piety of the Church of England hath so happily furnished them SIR I have sent you this to entertain and refesh your Memory before your Answer comes which I shall earnestly expect by the next I am SIR Your humble Servant M. H. April 5. 1697. LETTER VI. To J. M. SIR I Find by your last that 't is as hard to please as 't is to convince you For though we stated the Question last by your own Definition of the Gift of Prayer and I thought to hear no more of that yet now you are out of conceit with that too and complain still of the State of the Question 'T was first put in new and varied words which is the main if not only difference between Forms and Extempore Prayer the former consisting in the constant use of the same Words upon the same occasion The latter in the change and variety of them where no occasion requires it But that would not do thence we came from the Words no the Ability of Expressions and yet now that does not please neither for you say this is a mere Logomachy or Lis de Nomine a Dispute about Words and so it must necessarily be whilst you place the Gift in them What 's to be done then You see this Notion of yours is a mere Proteus or Changling that is still varying and changing the Scene Why you must try again and see whether you can fix it upon something that is more constant and lasting For there is no Building without a Foundation nor no Arguing without a true State of the Question If you would place it in the Heart that would be a sound and safe Bottom and a stable Principle of Devotion but whilst you put it in the Tongue which is so slippery a Member and daily given to many Windings and Turnings you will never be able to fix it upon so unsound and uncertain a Bottom You would have the Question then stated thus Whether an Ability of Expressions may not be called the Gift of Prayer or Whether the inward Desires and good Motions of the Heart do only deserve that Name With all my Heart provided you will take an Answer and stand to it I say then That an Ability of Expressions is very improperly call'd the Gift of Prayer because the whole business of Prayer may be done without it And that the pious Motions and Elevations of the Heart do most properly and principally deserve that Name because this is the very Essence of Prayer which is required to all sorts of Prayer and none of them can be well perform'd without it If you could but come to this it would be a fair step to a right Understanding in this Matter for