true Devotion But besides this there are Feverish Heats of Fancy and Enthusiasm which inflame and disorder the Spirits and in Men of hot Brains and strong Imaginations raise them to some degree of Extasie and spiritual Frenzy This is a Disease of the Mind and is very far from the Temper of True Devotion And the want of knowing and distinguishing between these hath led Men into many Mistakes about the Duty of Prayer and other parts of Religion for finding themselves somewhat warm and earnest at a Religious Exercise they presently conclude themselves fir'd with true Zeal and Piety towards God when all the while it proves no better than false Fire and a plain mistake of the heat of Fancy for the Fervors of true Devotion But how may we discern the one from the other Why chiefly by observing these three things viz. 1 What is it that creates this Warmth 2 How long does it continue 3 And what Fruits does it produce First then Let me ask you what is it that heats you in such Prayer Is it the Matter or only the newness and variety of the Phrases and Expressions in which 't is delivered If it be the soundness of the Matter that thus affects you then the same Matter delivered in a well-composed Form would have the same effect and this would shew it a sincere Fit of Devotion But if it be only a new conceived Prayer that does this Feat then 't is plain that 't is not the Matter but the mere Novelty of the words that thus tickles and warms you Such sudden Transports are occasion'd only by new and surprising words which striking briskly upon the Fancy are apt to move and enliven it But this does not go deep enough to reach or warm the Heart but are only the Fallacies and false Heats of Imagination Again Secondly let me ask you How long doth the Warmth you feel at such Prayers continue Does it abide with you and keep up a constant heat of Love and Desire towards God Is it like the Vestal Flame that never goes out Or is it only like the Fit of an Ague that comes and goes again and where the Hot Fit is soon follow'd with a Cold one If it be only so be not deceived this is not the inward Flame or Heat of a devout Heart for that is permanent and lasting but either a Feverish Fit of Hypocrisie or a Delusion of Imagination True Zeal is Uniform and Constant and though it may admit of some Intermissions yet like the Natural Heat of the Heart 't will abide as long as Life continues but if it grows cold again and wears off this pretended Warmth is no other than the transient and preternatural Heats of Fancy Thirdly and lastly Let me ask you What Fruits does this Warmth you speak of produce Does it enkindle and cherish in your Breast the Love of God and your Neighbour If so 't is a good sign of a kindly heat and spiritual Life in the Soul But if as it too often happens it enkindles the Flames of Wrath and Contention If it leads you into ways of Division and Separation by which you become Undutiful to your Superiours Proud Censorious and void of Charity to your Equals This Heat is but an Ignis fatuus that hath led you out of the way of Truth and Peace Such a Zeal is no better than Wild-fire and hath more than once set whole Kingdoms in a Combustion In a word if this be the best Fruit that grows upon this Stock 't is evident it springs from a rotten and corrupt Tree All this pretended Warmth that ariseth from the Novelty and Change of Words is only the gratification and amusement of Fancy and not the Fervours of true Devotion So that what our Saviour said of False Prophets may be said of false Lights By their fruits you shall know them The sum is This deadness and dulness Men complain of is not in the Prayers which are admirably fitted to enkindle and excite holy Desires and Affections but in their own Prejudices which lie as a Clog on the Soul and hinder both its fervency and flight unto Heaven And therefore these must be removed that they may the better lift up their Hearts unto God And if they will be perswaded to mend themselves they will see little reason to mend the Prayers but rather great Cause to bless God that the Church whereof they are Members hath provided for them such a pious and excellent Model of Devotion There is one thing more to be considered which I find frequently mentioned in your Letters where though things lie scattered up and down without Order or Method yet I shall endeavour to bring them all into their right places and so leave nothing material unanswered and that is The imposing of Publick Forms is a great Grievance and the not leaving Men to the Liberty of Free Prayer that have a Talent that way Which shall be consider'd in the next I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Wellwisher M. H. April 26. 1697. LETTER X. To J. M. SIR I Find by your Papers that you can sometimes speak as meanly of New and Varied Expressions in Prayer as one would wish and yet at other times can cry them up as the only Lively and Spiritual way of Praying And tho' sometimes your Objections against Publick Forms are so fierce and terrible that one would think you utterly condemn them to be thrown out of the Church yet in a milder mood you can speak more favourably and allow them to be pretty harmless if not useful things These are some of your many and usual Inconsistencies But what is it that thus unsettles you and makes your Pleas as various as your Prayers Why 'T is the Injunction of Forms that sticks in your Stomach and can't down with you You would have them left Free and not impos'd upon those who you think have no need of them And here you magnify your own and some others Talent this way and complain most bitterly of Silencing so many Brave Men that could not comply with the Publick use of them You call them only helps of Impotence and Insufficiency and compare them to Spectacles for bad Eyes and Crutches for lame Legs c. Now to set these things right let us consider 1. what Authority our Superiours have to command in these matters and who gave them this Authority And 2ly Let us see what Obligations lie upon Subjects to obey and observe them And then we shall the better see what force your fine Similies and frivolous Objections have against them First then let us see what Authority our Superiours have to command in these Matters To clear this we must note that Governours being God's Ministers are set up by him and invested with his Authority which must therefore extend to all Lawful things and whatsoever is not forbidden or countermanded by God himself Now Forms of Prayer are so far from being forbidden that we find them recommended
and prescribed too by Divine Authority and are by your self reckon'd in the number of Lawful things and consequently lie within the Bounds and Limits of their Authority and our Superiours do not go beyond their Commission in commanding them You know the Apostle requires that All things in the Worship of God should be done decently and in Order 1 Cor. 14.40 to avoid Confusion and prevent Sects and Schisms from breaking into the Church And if so then some body must have the ordering of them for Order can't be kept up by Chance neither will the Vulgar of themselves observe that decency that becomes the Service of God Who then should have the ordering of these things but our Governours to whom the care of the Church is committed Again the same Apostle wills that All things be done to Edification 1 Cor. 14.26 which is an Allusion to Building in which you know there must be some chief Architect or Master-builder to contrive and give directions and these are to be observ'd by the Inferiour Workmen who are to work by order Line and Rule without which their Work will be rather a confused Heap than a Regular Structure In like manner in the Church which is the House of God there must be some to preside and give Orders and others to obey and be subject to their Authority without which all will be out of Frame and things will be done to Destruction and not to Edification Now if Publick Forms be most conducing to this Decency and Order if they best preserve the Unity Harmony and Reverence of Divine Worship they must be reckon'd not only in the number of things Lawful but Expedient too and so must fall under the Cognizance and Authority of our Governours This Argument if put in Form will run thus Lawful things may be enjoyned by Superiours But Forms of Prayer are Lawful things Ergo. To which if we add their consonancy to all Antiquity and Expediency to preserve an Uniform and Regular way of Publick Worship 't will give the greater force to it So that Governours you see have good Authority for what they do in these matters 2. In the next place then what Obligation is there upon Subjects to obey or observe them Why a very strong one too if you will believe Christ and his Apostles for they will and command Every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers as ordain'd of God Rom. 13.1 To obey them that have the Rule over them in the Lord Heb. 13.17 and To submit to every ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake 1 Pet. 2.13 Where all the Lawful Commands of our Superiours are ty'd upon us by virtue of God's Authority which is derived upon them and therefore we are required to be subject not only for Wrath or fear of Punishment which is a loose Principle of Obedience and will be cast off by too many when they can escape unpunished but for Conscience sake which is a firmer Bond and will keep good Men to their Duty even when the Penalty is suspended So that Superiours you see have full Authority from God to Command and Subjects have a strict Obligation laid upon them to Obey in such Matters The Argument in Form will be thus All lawful Injunctions of our Governours are to be obey'd But the Injunction of Publick Forms is a lawful Injunction and therefore ought to be obey'd However Let Forms of Prayer be never so lawful and expedient too and the Authority that Commands them never so just yet you would not have them enjoyned but left free for Men to use them or not to use them as they think convenient And will not this think you unavoidably create Schisms and bring in mere Confusion into the Church Are not the Vulgar generally caught either by the multitude or novelty or variety of Words and merely led by the Phantasms of Imagination Do not some look out for the strongest Lungs and the loudest Voice and he passeth with them for the most powerful Man Do not others seek for the nimblest Tongue and readiest of Speech and he goes with them for a spiritual and inspired Person And are there not others which hunt about for the best Tone and the sweetest Voice and this is their precious and heavenly Man What think you Will not this send the generality of People a gadding or madding rather after their own and others Inventions Will not False Teachers arise who for by and secular Ends will feed the Vulgar with their beloved Varieties and claw their Itching Ears with pleasing Novelties Will not the People go a Pilgrimage to find out the most Gifted Brother and leave him too as soon as they hear of another appearing upon the Stage Are you so fond Sir of Confusion as to have such a wide Door open'd for it And would you have your Superiours so little regard the Precepts that concern Order Peace and Unity as to leave things to this pass But the enjoining of Forms say you hath been the occasion of all our Troubles and 't is this that created and continues our Divisions Pray Sir whose fault is that Must not the Magistrate do his Duty to preserve Order because some are so refractory and disobedient as to neglect theirs Must there be no Government because some Turbulent Factious Spirits are too much inclin'd to disturb it No Sir 't was not the Magistrates lawful exercise of his Power but your perverseness in with-holding due Reverence and Obedience to it that is the Cause of all our Troubles 'T was not the enjoyning but the removing of Forms that was the In-let of all our Divisions For when the Liturgy was abolished your Free Prayer gave all Men a liberty of venting what they pleas'd by which means Sects and Schisms presently began to increase and multiply and a wide Gap was open'd for Atheism Blasphemy and Confusion and every evil Work to enter in So that the heavy Reckoning you speak of will be put upon your Score for resisting that Authority which you ought to have obey'd and instead of preserving Unity and Peace fomenting and propagating Divisions But Scotland say you is a United Country without a Liturgy Sir You may abuse ignorant and deluded People with such Stories but its shameless to utter such Untruths to those that know and lament the doleful Miseries and Distractions of that unhappy Kingdom If you had said The rise and beginning of all our Troubles had been from Scotland and still is a great occasion of continuing them you had spoke a great and a sad Truth For the great Rebellion that hath done us this mischief began there and the Flames of the Civil Wars that shed so much Royal and Noble as well as Common Blood were first kindled by some hot and fiery Spirits in that Kingdom which after spread and put both Kingdoms into a Combustion But if Matters be so much changed for the best and Scotland is become like Jerusalem a place at Unity within its self and thereby
the Praise of the whole Earth you would do well to remove into that blessed Countrey where there is no Liturgy to dull your Devotion but Free Prayer enough to serve for all Emergencies and nothing but the Voice of Joy Peace and Unity can sound in your Ears But you would have me Petition our Governours for removing the Occasions of our Divisions which you say are Declarations and Subscriptions that you may continue here with much more comfort Sir I have learnt more Manners than to direct and prescribe to my Governours who have a further prospect and deeper Insight into these matters than 't is fit for me to pretend to But it s a piece of your wonted Modesty to set up your vain Opinion above the Wisdom and Authority of your Superiours And you are resolv'd to be out of humour if they order matters otherwise than you would have them If you would but root out this piece of spiritual Pride and learn so much Humility as to suspect your own Judgment which God knows and any Wise Man may see is weak enough you would soon find there were no need or occasion for such a Petition But you have one Fetch more against enjoining of Forms that must not be past by and that is this viz. The Magistrate thinks these things to be but indifferent whereas many of us judge them to be Unlawful And therefore we are to be born with and his Judgment to be laid aside An excellent way indeed to set up your selves above your Superiours and to obey only what you please for 't is but for you to say or think any thing they Command to be Unlawful and then you have an Excuse or Dispensation from all Obedience to it Is not this an easier way than that of Corban to evacuate the Law and make void the Commandments both of God and Man But how come any among you to judge Forms of Prayer Unlawful which have ever been used in the Church from the beginning of Christianity to this Day If you have led any into this Mistake your Duty is to undeceive them and lead them out of it and not to desire that such weak or rather wilful persons should be humoured in such Fooleries As for things plainly forbidden by the Law of God I hope we may so far trust to the Care and Integrity of our Governours as not to fear the enjoining of them Or if they should you have a good Dispensation from obeying them But for Matters judged to be good and profitable to the Publick as the use of Forms against which some may have a few Scruples and Prejudices here I hope the Wisdom and Authority of Government may turn the Scale and the certain Duty of Obedience ought to weigh down an uncertain Scruple Sir I have no time or room left to consider your fine Similies of the Spectacles and Crutches at present but you shall not fail of it in my next I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. April 29. 1697. LETTER XI To J. M. SIR I Observ'd in my last that tho' you can pretty well digest Forms of Prayer yet 't is the Injunction of them that sticks in your Stomach But I hope what I farther observ'd concerning the Just Authority of Superiours to command and the necessary Duty of Subjects to obey in a matter so lawful and expedient too may help to make it go down a little better However against the Imposing of them you go on to tell me that Forms of Prayer were at first brought in and intended only as Helps of Impotence and Insufficiency and to confine Men still to them is to necessitate them to a continual Impotence You own them to be excellent and useful Things in the Times of Ignorance and Darkness but now there is such a Meridiam Light that shines about us there can be no other use of them than to send us back again or keep us in the former Darkness for Christ and his Apostles say you never enjoyned these things and to Impose them now under the Gospel is no better than to force Spectacles upon good Eyes and Crutches upon able Legs Now to set these things in their true Light I shall readily grant you 1. that Forms of Prayer are Helps of Impotence and Insufficiency but they are such Helps as have been necessary ever since the days of Inspiration and will be so to the end of the World For there is a natural Impotence in all Men as to the Great Duties of Religion and more especially to this of Prayer And therefore all possible Helps are to be used to aid and assist us in the due performance of it Under the old Testament God Almighty appointed many Forms of Prayer Praises and Blessing the People and the Jewish Service consisted of these together with the Psalms of David and other Occasional Prayers composed by their Learned Doctors And these were the Helps for their Impotence under the Legal Dispensation Under the Gospel we find Forms of Prayers compos'd and prescrib'd to help the Impotence of Christians under that Dispensation St. John the Baptist the first Gospel Preacher taught his Disciples to Pray Luk. 11.1 2. which could not be Praying by the Spirit for none but the Holy Ghost could teach that but he composed and taught them a Form of Prayer After which the Disciples of Christ came to him and beg'd him to teach them to Pray as John taught his Disciples and he instantly gave them a Form of Prayer and this was done to help the Impotence and Insufficiency of both for we find the Apostles acknowledging that they knew not what to Pray for as they ought and that they were not sufficient of themselves to think a good thought And because the whole Oeconomy of the Jewish Worship was then to be abolished and a more Spiritual and Christian way of Worship to be set up in its room there was granted to them for a while an extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration for the setling and propagating of it And when that was done this extraordinary Gift ceased and Publick Prayers were compos'd according to it And this hath continued in the Christian Church ever since So that as Necessity at first brought in Forms of Prayer to help Mens natural Impotence and Insufficiency for this Duty so there now is and ever will be the same necessity to continue them 2. But Secondly 'T is a Mistake Sir to affirm that they were brought in and intended only for Helps of Insufficiency for there were other wise and great Ends in it namely when Christianity multipyed to preserve Order and Unity and to prevent Schisms and Divisions in the Church And likewise that all Men may be acquainted with what they offer up unto God in Publick Worship without which they cannot agree in their Petitions nor Pray as we are bid with one Heart and one Consent But Christ and his Apostles say you never enjoyned Forms of Prayer I would not have
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
A Correct COPY Of Some LETTERS Written to J. M. a Nonconformist Teacher Concerning the Gift and Forms OF PRAYER By MATTHEW HOLE B.D. sometime Fellow of Exeter Coll. Oxon now Vicar of Stoke-gursey in Somerset-shire Ipsa Oratio inter Gratiae munera reperitur St. Aug. Ep. 105. London Printed for H. Chauklin Bookseller in Taunton and are sold by R. Knaplock at the Angel Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1698. THE PREFACE THE Occasion of these Letters was from some Exceptions taken at a Visitation-Sermon preach'd in a Populous and Divided Town of this Kingdom In which a set Liturgy for Publick Worship was preferred before Extemporary Effusions The Vindication whereof in another Discourse since published had the good luck not only of pleasing Many but convincing Some to their utter abandoning of separate Meetings Hereupon the Leader of a Conventicle in that Place finding the Defection of some and fearing the Revolt of more of his Followers thought fit to fall foul upon this Sermon Attacking it with great Fury to prevent its doing any further Mischief What he said or writ to that purpose you will find answer'd in the following Letters which are here humbly tendred and submitted to the Judgment of the Candid and Impartial Reader If there be a seeming Air and Pleasantness in some of them unbecoming the Gravity of the Subject the Reader may remember They are Letters and not Tracts and that a greater Freedom and Facetiousness hath been ever allow'd in Epistles than in Graver Treatises Besides the Author could not think of a better way to keep the Adversary to a Point from which he was extreamly given to wander than by letting him see sometimes how far he was gone from it and merrily exposing his Excursions If there be sometimes a greater Sharpness and Severity of Stile 't is no more than is necessary where Obstinacy is added to Error and Men withstand all the milder methods of Conviction A Wound that requir'd at first a soft and gentle Hand must be more deeply Search'd when 't is attended with a Malignity St. Paul charg'd Titus To rebuke some offenders Sharply that they might be found in the Faith Tit. 1.13 and himself did so with the Galatians whom he calls Foolish Galatians asking who had bewitched them that they should not obey the Truth Gal. 3.1 And certainly there can be no greater Fascination in Religion than that of Extempore-Prayer which hath done more to destroy all sober Piety and Devoton than all the other Arts and Devices of Deceivers These Letters are swoll'n into a greater Number and Bulk than was at first intended meerly by the Artifice of the Adversary whose chief Design was to puzzle and entangle with Quaeries and to cut out more Work than he thought either could or would be Finished But perhaps he may be now sensible of his Mistake There being nothing Material in his Papers that is left unanswer'd The Adversary not giving his Consent to the Publishing of his Letters the Author hath thought fit to leave them to his own Publication In the mean time what he hath or shall farther object on this Subject shall not fail of an Answer as Occasion shall require Farewel LETTER I. To J. M. SIR I Had this Week a sight of some Papers that have past between Mr. F. and you in which finding my self unexpectedly concerned and reflected upon I have sent you this in answer to what concerns me in them But First I must needs tell you in general that your Papers are stuff'd with so many frivolous Queries wherein nothing is either fairly propos'd or wisely prosecuted and likewise with such impertinent excursions wherein you leap from one thing to another without any coherence of Sense or Argument that I assure you it was very nauseous and a great exercise of patience to read them for when you seem to pitch upon any one thing and there might be some hopes of your staying a while and fairly debating of it by and by you are gone and like a Bird that is chased hop from place to place and from one thing to another and no doubt for the same reason too for fear of being caught But what is worse in this insufferable Ramble of yours there is no person of what Parts Piety Place or Station soever can scape the lash of your censure Archbishop Sancroft Bishop Ken Bishop Cousins Bishop Taylor all the Reverend Bishops that compiled the Liturgy who were some of the first Reformers and many of them Martyrs yea all the Kings and Parliaments that have ever since enjoyned the Liturgy for the Decency and Uniformity of Publick Worship are all arraigned by you The Translators of the Bible the Collects and Canons of the Church Nothing how well soever compos'd or how wisely soever enjoyned can escape the Castigation of your merciless Pen Among the rest I find you unmercifully falling upon me without giving the least notice but I assure you I take it for a greater honour than disgrace to be ranked and reproached with such good Company One would think Sir by your Papers that you were either a Pope or some Oecumenical Bishop that usurped an Authority of censuring and condemning all other Bishops besides many other Persons of very great Worth and Learning famous in their generations And yet after all this noise 't is manifest by your Papers that all this confidence is grounded only on some crude indigested Notions of Mr. Baxters which have been answered a hundred times over by many learned Men of which yet you take no manner of notice and indeed it is plain by your Writing that you never read them and that your Study runs chiefly upon a paultry sort of Divinity that 's only calculated for the Meridian of a Conventicle But 't is time to come to what concerns me in these Papers which are some wise Reflections on my Visitation Sermon Now tho' this Sermon past the Approbation of all the Clergy there present being published at their Request and since its Publication hath had the Acceptance and good liking of the World yet you are resolved it shall not pass Muster at Bridgwater and tho' you dare not Publish any thing against it yet you think fit to have a sling or a slirt at it now and then in a Conventicle that may serve as an Antidote to preserve your deluded Followers from the poison of it Certainly Sir you deserve to be Chronicled for a Person of incomparable Modesty and Candour and to stand upon Record to future Ages as an Instance of the deep Learning and close reasoning of a Dissenting Brother But what have you to say against the Sermon Why First it calls your praying in Publick without a Form by the reproachful name of extempore Effusions And is it not so called by all learned Men who have occasion to speak or write of it who have occasion to speak or write of it who yet have no mind to reproach but reform your Devotion But to speak to
the point are they so or not If they are so that is words not penn'd but pour'd out of a sudden then the Reproach will lie upon such as use them and not upon those that call them by that name In your Prayers then either the Matter and Words are well digested considered and compos'd before-hand and then 't is a Form of Prayer or else they are left to such sudden Conceptions and Expressions as their Fancy suggests upon the place and then they are no better nor no worse than Extempore Effusions if there be a Medium betwixt these two pray let me know it and you shall have your own term But you do not like the word Extemporary because it implies such an hastiness or rashness of expression Eccl. 5.2 as Solomon forbids in our Addresses unto God and indeed so it does And I heartily wish you would as much abhor the Thing as you do the Name and then there might be some hopes in time of having such Prayers from you as are fit for Wise Men to hear and Good Men to join in But you would have it called by the name of Conceived Prayer or Conceiving of Prayer with all my Heart if that will please you tho' you must own it a preposterous course to Conceive and bring forth together and that great care should be taken to prevent Abortion in publick Congregations But I perceive by a Paper that I receiv'd this day that the term of Free Prayer seems to carry it from all the rest by which I suppose you mean a freedom of your own Conceptions and Expressions in Prayer without being bound up to any Form of Prayer of your own or others Composing and so it comes all to one and I am content to let it pass under that Name for this being only a dispute about Words I am not willing to differ about it Secondly Another thing you complain of in my Sermon which is a great grievance is my disparaging the Gift of Prayer as a thing not to be coveted a very bad thing indeed if it were true but how is it prov'd Why thus I disparage the Gift of Extemporary Effusions which I say is not the Gift of Prayer therefore I desparage the first Gift of Prayer Most profound reasoning And yet this is all the proof that can be gather'd from thence for your Assertion and by this way of Arguing you may prove any thing or nothing as you shall see occasion But I suppose you take the Gift of Prayer to consist in the change and novelty of words or a faculty of talking to God every day in new and varied Phrases Now this is that I expos'd and think it justly deserves it too as you shall sind more at large when I know your mind about it In the mean time I recommend to you a Book Entitled The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence where you may sind the admirable Elegancy and Rarity of such Prayers as they were taken in Short-hand from the most celebrated Preachers in Scotland Whereas the Gift of Prayer rightly understood lies principally in the Heart and consists not in pouring out many and new Words but in pouring out the Soul unto God and lifting up the Heart to him and this I am so far from disparaging that I esteem it a highly valuable and desirable Gift Now because the Hinge of the Controversie between us is like to turn upon this Point I will try for once whether it be possible to prevent Excursions and to keep you close to it and to that end I will first propound the Matter in Debate between us and then give you some Arguments to confirm my Sense and Opinion about it The Question then is Whether the Gift of Prayer doth properly consist in a Faculty of varying Phrases and expressing our selves to God in our own Words or Whether it consists in the pious Motions and good Affections of the Heart Your Papers run plainly on the former and my Sermon affirms the latter Here then we are to engage and enter the Lists and I warn you once more beforehand to keep close for I shall look on all Excursions as a down-right running away which you know is the Loss of a Battel First then I shall prove to you That the â—ift of Prayer consists not in Words or Expressions and much less in the Change and Variety of them which I shall do by this Argument If neither Words in general nor our own Words in particular are absolutely necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer then the Gift of Prayer cannot be said to consist in them But neither Words in general nor our own Words in particular are absolutely necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer Therefore the Gift of it cannot consist in them The major is evident because the Gift or Faculty of doing any thing is necessary to the actual doing and performing of it and therefore if Words are not necessary to Prayer the Gift of Praying cannot consist in them The minor consists of two Parts viz. that neither Words in general nor our own Words in particular are necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer both which I prove thus If Prayer may be acceptably performed without the use of any Words and likewise without the use of our own Words then neither of them are absolutely necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer But Prayer c. That both these are true we have plain Evidence and Examples in Holy Scripture 1 Sam. 1.13 for Hannah prayed in her Heart when her Voice was not heard and all that speak of mental Prayer which is the Soul 's sighing out its Desires unto God own that the Duty may be performed by the inward Motions and Operations of the Mind without the use of the Voice or uttering any thing with the Tongue The Prophet Zachary describes the Spirit of Grace and Supplications Zech. 12.10 by looking upon him whom they have pierced and mourning over him which imports the inward Compunction of the Soul but hath no relation to Words and outward Expressions And S. Paul sets forth the Assistance which the Spirit of God gives in Prayer not by helping us to utter and express any thing with the Tongue Rom. 8.26 but by sighs and groans that cannot be uttered So that Prayer may be performed without any Words and that it may be without our own Words is evident by the Experience of many good Christians who daily serve God in the use of Forms which are not their own but the Words of others so that neither Words in general nor our own in particular are absolutely necessary or essential to the Duty of Prayer and consequently the Gift of Prayer cannot be properly said to consist in them which was the thing to be proved SIR I am forced to break off here intending God willing to give you a farther Account of this Matter in my next in the mean time when you have chew'd the Cud upon this
I expect your Answer I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Wellwisher M. H. March 13. 1696. LETTER II. To J. M. I Was forc'd to break off in my last before I had finish'd my Argument which I shall therefore pursue a little farther in this that you may the better see the force of it and how to shape your Reply to it but still I must mind you to keep close for there 's all the Danger and I assure you I am more afraid of your Excursions than of your Arguments The Question in Debate is concerning the Gift of Prayer scil Whether it consists in a Faculty of expressing our selves unto God in our own new and varied Words or in the pious Motions and Elevations of the Heart unto him Against the former which both your Papers and Practice manifest to be your Opinion I argued thus That we may pray acceptably unto God without any Words as in mental Prayer and without our own Words as in godly Forms and without new and varied Words as in standing Publick Liturgies and therefore the Gift of Prayer cannot consist in any Faculty of Expressions and much less in the changeable Novelty and Variety of them The Antecedent I proved in my last and shall do it more fully when I know your Exceptions against it The Consequence I take to be firm and undeniable for the Gift of Prayer must extend to all sorts of Prayer as the Genius does to every Species for else 't is not the Gift of Prayer in general but merely a Gift of this or that particular way of Praying and I think it sufficiently absurd to affirm that there is an acceptable way of Praying without the Gift of Prayer for then this Gift will be like the Philosopher's Stone he that has it may do Wonders but he that wants it may do well enough without it 'T is strange Sir to me that a Man of your Sagacity and deep Insight into Things should discern no better betwixt the Gift of Speech Utterance and Elocution which is applicable to any Subject or Occasion and the Gift of Prayer which is of a different and a higher Nature and you may as well take a Lawyer 's Volubility in Pleading for the Gift of Tongues and a Physician 's Readiness of Discourse concerning Diseases and Medicines for the Gift of Healing as a Fluency of Words about our Wants and the Supply of them for the Gift of Prayer the Life and Soul of which lies in the inward Desires and Devotions of the Heart and not in the Nimbleness and Volubility of the Tongue Before I conclude this Argument I will recommend this short Remark to your Consideration scil That the Use of Words is to Inform the End of many Words to perswade the Design of new Words to please the first affects the Mind the second the Passions the third the Fancy Now none of these are of any Use or Consideration in our Addresses unto God for he is not to be informed by any Words nor to be perswaded by many nor to be pleased with new These things may do much with Men who are wont to be wrought upon this way but they have no Force or Essicacy at all with God who hears the silent Language of the Heart and answers the secret Sighs and Breathings of a devout Soul And to think that God either needs or is pleased with a fanciful Variety of new Expressions is to form mean and unworthy thy Notions of him and to think him such a one as our selves And now Sir I fear your Notion of the Gift of Prayer may begin to totter and unless you take some speedy Care to prop it up by a firm and close Answer it may be in danger of falling And thus having shewn the Weakness of your Opinion I come now to try the Strength of my own scil That the Gift of Prayer properly consists in the pious Motions and good Affections of the Heart And here my Comfort is that I have the general Concurrence of the most judicious and pious Divines of my side in this matter so that whatever comes of it I am like to stand or fall with good Company and that you may the better see upon what firm Ground we stand I here present you with these two Arguments Arg. 1. That which best enables to the right Performance of the Duty of Prayer That is properly the Gift of Prayer This I suppose will be easily granted for the Faculty of doing any thing well is commonly stiled a Talent or Gift of that thing and he that performs it in the best manner is said to have attained to the Art or Gift of it But the inward pious Motions and good Affections of the Heart do best enable to the right Performance of the Duty of Prayer neither can this be well denied seeing the Heart is generally owned to be the chief Spring and Seat of true Devotion without which the greatest Readiness and Copiousness of Speech is but empty Noise and vain babling and therefore the Conclusion must hold good That the divine Art or Gift of Prayer lies principally in the pious Motions and Affections of the Heart Arg. 2. That which best answers the End of Prayer and tends most to the Success and Acceptance of it That is most properly the Gift of Prayer This no doubt will be granted for he that prays most successfully may be supposed to be best endowed with the Gift of it but the inward hearty Desires of the Soul best answer the End of Prayer and tend most to the Success and Acceptance of it And I think you will not venture to deny this for the Prayer of the Wicked with all its Flourishes and Enlargements is an Abomination to the Lord and a short silent Ejaculation darted from a pious and devout Soul will sooner pierce the Heavens and enter the Ears of God than the loudest and longest Harangue of the Hypocrite And therefore the Conclusion must be true scil That the divine Art or Gift of Prayer resides within and consists chiefly in the pious Motions and good Affections of the Heart Which was the thing to be proved Sir when you have well consider'd these things 't is possible you may come to some better Understanding than you have at present in this matter And because 't is a double Act of Charity at once to direct the Shepherd and to reduce the wandring Sheep misled by him give me leave to take a little more pains with you to set you right in a matter of so great moment To that end as we have already seen the Reasons so let us now weigh the Consequence of both these Opinions which I will assure you are of no small Consideration in this matter On the one hand then the placing of the Gift of Prayer in the Heart may be a means of setting Men upon a stricter Watch over it and keeping it close to the Duty and because the Imbecility of the Mind is such that it cannot
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
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
there But you must needs have an external verbal Gift made up of new Words and Phrases to serve upon occasion and this again is your Gift of Prayer Furthermore you distinguish between an acceptable way of Praying with respect to God which is the right performance of this Duty and this you very well place in the inward Desires and Elevations of the Heart Now the other Member of this Distinction must be an acceptable way of Praying with respect to Men and this may lie in new and varied Words which are most apt to tickle the itching Ears and please the Fancies of vain Men And This is your Gift because you say Old Words are good for nothing but to dull and deaden you Devotion Again you distinguish between a Moral or Theological way of performing the Duty of Prayer and This you place in the devour Affections of the Soul And an artificial way of performing this Duty and This you put in Apt Words and Expressions though they are no part of it Lastly you distinguish between a successful way of Praying the Gift whereof you own to lie in the good Motions and Dispositions of the Soul and an Unsuccessful or a way of Praying to no purpose And This being good for nothing you may place it in Words or the Ability of Expressions or where else you please And now Sir be pleas'd to look back to the new Sating of the Question in the beginning of this Letter and tell me whether the Special Spiritual Internal Devout and Successful way of performing the Duty of Prayer be not most properly principally and deservedly stiled the Gift of Prayer and whether the common external artificial and unsuccessful way of Praying be not very improperly and abusively called by that Name I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Wellwisher M. H. April 12. 1697. LETTER VII To J. M. SIR I Hope by this time you begin to see what a vain empty thing your own Arguments and Distinctions make of your Gift of Prayer for whether you put it in Words or in an Ability or in a Variety of Expressions 't is a meer windy and flatulent Notion apt indeed to puff up but not to edify and perhaps 't is hard to find a greater Instance of Pride and Folly together than to hear one venting his Talent of Words among the Ignorant deluded Vulgar where his affected Tone mingled with their affected Groans renders it rather a Scene of Mockery than Devotion You know Sir Verba dare is to deceive and that a great deal of Guile and Hypocrisy lies under the Pomp and flourish of Words One would think Sir that when God saith my Son give me thy Heart he had plainly directed to the Gift he expects in Prayer but instead of that you give him the Tongue and offer up the Calves of the Lips and with the Heathens think him delighted with the Gift of much Speaking 'T is too evident Sir by both your Letters that you cannot yet discern between the Gift of Speech and the Gift of Prayer for you confound and take one for the other without knowing it as you may plainly see by this Argument The Ability of Expressions is nothing else but the Gift of Speech But your Gift of Prayer is an Ability of Expressions and therefore your Gift of Prayer is nothing else but the Gift of Speech The Minor is your own the Major is evident because Ability is the same with Gift and Expressions the same with Speech and consequently they are both the same thing And yet you Labour hard to prove that some Men can and do pray very fluently without this Gift of Speech which being the same with your Ability of Expressions is to prove that they may pray without your Gift of Praying and likewise that they may speak very fluently without the Gift of Speech The Absurdity whereof is gross enough to be felt Again I find you Arguing That because that extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration which was peculiar to the Apostles and appropriated wholly to the Matter and Words of Prayer is by St. Chrysostom and others called the Gift of Prayer therefore your common and ordinary Gift of Speech or Ability of Expressions which is applicable to any other occasion must be stiled by that sacred Name Thus are you Bewildred and Lost as it were in a Mist or Cloud of Words and led by an Ignis fatuus so far out of the way that you scarce know where you are But come I fear 't is this word Gift that hath thus impos'd upon you and done all this Mischief and therefore let us lay it aside a while and enquire into the Nature of Prayer wherein that mainly consists and this perhaps may be the best way to lead you out of this Cloud and to clear up the whole Matter Prayer then in its proper Notion is the application of the Heart and Soul unto God with a due sense of the Divine Majesty and an humble Dependence upon him for the supply of all our Wants This is the Nature and Essence of Prayer which you see is no verbal thing but a pious Address of the Heart and Soul unto God Here is nothing of Words nor Expressions that enters this Divine Composition which may be as well and sometimes better done without them than with them But when I told you that God is not to be inform'd by any Words nor to be perswaded by many nor pleas'd with new you ask me What then must we pray without any Words And in another place Must we set down with the Quakers silence and settle in Quietism To which I answer No For there are some times when we may pray either with or without Words as when we are alone and there are times likewise when words are necessary as when we pray with others both these have their proper Seasons When we are alone in our Closet we may breath out our desires unto God either with or without Words as we find most conducing to the inward Piety and Devotion of our Soul And when we are in our Callings we may frequently lift up our Hearts unto God with or without Words and mingle some short Ejaculations with the Affairs and Business of this Life 1 Thes 5.17 which is that Praying continually and without Ceasing enjoyned by the Apostle and is a way of Praying very acceptable and well pleasing unto God But when we pray with others in Publick or Private Words are to be used not by way of Information for God knows our Necessities before we ask much less for Vanity or Ostentation but to help us to joyn in our Petitions to agree in what we ask and to glorifie our Maker with one Heart and one Mouth Rom. 15.6 Now here the known compos'd Words of a Form are far more conducing to this end than the sudden Conceptions and Expressions of free Prayer for by the former Men are acquainted before-hand what they are to ask of God and so may
come prepared with suitable Affections to joyn in it in the latter Men being uncertain what will be ask'd or offered up they must be uncertain too whether they may safely joyn or say Amen to it Again by Men's joyning together in Publick well compos'd Terms Unity and Order may be preserv'd the Peace of the Church and the Decency and Harmony of publick Worship may be secured 1 Cor. 1.10 For hereby according to the Apostles direction they may be enabled to Mind and Speak the same things Phil. 3.16 whereas by the Liberty of free Prayer Men may vent what they please they may and often do pray one against another and mingle their Passions and Errors with their Prayers by which means Confusion must necessarily break in and Sects and Schisms be unavoidably Multiplied and Increased Again by the joyning together in publick establish'd Forms we shew that Duty and Reverence that is owing to our Superiours to whom the care of the Church is committed we pay that Obedience Heb. 13.17 that is due to them that rule over us in the Lord and manifest our Subjection Rom. 13.1 5. and that not only for Wrath or for fear of Punishment but for Conscience sake which things are frequently taught and inculcated in Holy Scripture whereas by indulging this Gift of free Prayer in opposition to publick Establishments Men throw off the Duty of Obedience to the lawful Commands of their Superiours Jude 8. They come to despise wholsome Laws and to Speak evil of Dignities and this prepares them for Sedition and all manner of Disobedience Once more The joyning together in the same Prayers in publick Worship is a good means to preserve Love and Charity among Neighbours for Mens Religion hath a great influence on their Manners and conversation with each other They that go to the House of God together as Friends commonly continue so and maintain an Amicable and Friendly Correspondence whereas they that break into different parties and communions soon become Strangers and very often Enemies to one another Different ways of Worship necessarily breed Differences among Men and they that divide in Opinion generally do in Affection too sad Experience shews this both in Families Towns and Countries and he that will consider the hearty Love and Amity that was found in this Kingdom before the Civil Wars when all Men resorted to the same place and way of Worship and compare it to that Hatred Falshood Division and Contention that reigns in these present days will easily see the Miserable effects that have proceeded from your Gift of free Prayer which as it first caused our Divisions so is still the main Tool to uphold and increase them Sir These are serious and weighty Truths and very well deserve your deep and impartial Consideration which if you please to bestow upon them I doubt not but you will see cause to believe that to bring ardent Desires and good Affections to the publick Prayers of the Church whereby the inward Piety of the Heart towards God the outward Duty of subjection to Superiours and the mutual Offices of Love and Charity to our Neighbours are best promoted is far to be prefer'd before the Gift of free Prayer which being chiefly exercis'd about Words and Expressions is apt to disturb the Devotion of the Mind to give offence to our Governours and to create Feuds and Animosities among Neighbours Call to mind Sir the many affectionate Exhortations to Unity and Order 1 Cor. 1.10 with which the holy Scriptures do abound how heartily our Saviour prayed for it at his leaving the World John 17.20.21 22 23. Eph. 4 3 4. c. That they all might be one and how earnestly the Apostle presses the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and how sharply he rebuked all that cause and foment Divisions 1 Cor. 3.3 4 c. and consider whether Joyning together in the same pious and publick Prayers appointed by the Church be not a better means to preserve this Unity and Order than to leave Men to the freedom of venting and hearing what Prayers they please which must necessarily distract their Minds and lead them into great Confusions and Disorders But I find two Objections in your Letters against publick Establish'd Forms and for the exercise of Free Prayer The one is taken from the variety of emergent Accidents and Occasions of humane Life which cannot be so well provided for by Forms as by Free Prayet The other is taken from the tendency of the constant use of Forms to flatten and dull the Devotion which must therefore be quickened by the help of new and varied Prayers I shall shew both these to be popular Mistakes and bring on greater Mischiefs than they pretend to remedy and when that is done I shall consider what you offer from Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins In the mean time I am SIR Your hearty Friend and Well-wisher M. H. Apr. 15 1697. LETTER VIII To J. M. SIR I Promised in my last an Answer to two Popular Objections against Forms of Prayer which I find you making use of as Arguments for your Free Prayer The first whereof is taken from the variety of emergent Accidents and Occasions which you say cannot be so well provided for by Forms as by Free Prayer Now I would not have you be too positive and confident in this matter till you have well weigh'd these following Considerations viz. First The daily and ordinary matter of publick Prayer is still the same and therefore that may well be provided for by stated and useful Forms Now the daily and ordinary matter of publick Prayer are Confession of Sin Petition for Pardon with other Temporal and Spiritual Blessings Thanksgiving for Mercies received and Intercession for all Men whether Friends or Foes And more especially for those whom we are more particularly directed to pray for All which may be and are provided for by standing prescribed Forms and those so wisely ordered and composed too that as all Men may know and satisfie themselves in them before-hand so they may come prepared to joyn in them To instance in Particulars For Confession of Sin we have Two excellent Forms of it in the Publick Liturgy the One in the Daily the other in the Communion Service of the Church Where the general Aberrations of humane Life in Thought Word and Deed are so piously and pithily express'd that every true penitent Christian may and ought with one Heart and one Mouth to joyn in them But these you say float too much in Generalities But must not the publick Confession be so General that all Men may be able to make it Would you have it descend to those particular Sins which many are not guilty of and so make them confess that to God with which they cannot charge themselves There are many no doubt in every Congregation that never committed Murder or Adultery by taking away the Life or Chastity of any Person and would
you have these and other Enormous Crimes put into the Publick Confession from which many are free and so falsly accuse themselves before God You know that every one hath some particular Sins to which their Constitution and Circumstances of Life may more strongly incline them Now these are to be the subject of Mens private and secret Confessions but must not enter the publick Confession of the Church for that must be so framed as to reach all that all may joyn in it We are indeed to Pray against every particular Sin which is excellently well done in the Litany but we are to confess no more than we are guilty of And how far the Confessions of your free Prayer are faulty this way you will do well to consider Again for Petition for Mercy and Pardon with all other Spiritual and Temporal Blessings these too may be and are excellently provided for by pious and prescrib'd Forms The common and ordinary wants of Christians are constantly the same We want daily the Pardon of the Sins of every Day We lack continually our Daily Bread We stand in daily need of the Aids and Assistances of God's Holy Spirit to strengthen our Graces and to fortifie us against Temptations Now Prayers for the supply of these and all other Common wants of Christians are very well taken care of in the Litany Collects and other Offices of the Church If any Christian hath particular wants of his own that are not common to all Christians these are to be made the Requests of his secret and retired Devotion for nothing is to be pray'd for in Publick but what all Christians may joyntly ask and agree in If you call this too A floating in Generalities Know That this is all that is necessary or expedient for publick Worship Again For Thanksgivings for Mercies received these too may be and are well provided for by Publick Forms The Common and Ordinary Mercies vouchsaf'd to Christians are still the same the same Mercies are renew'd upon us every day and we daily partake of the same Instances of the Divine Bounty and Goodness And these are excellently well compriz'd in the general Thanksgiving where the common Mercies of Creation Preservation and likewise the more special Blessings of our Redemption are acknowledg'd together with the means of Grace and hopes of Glory And for other particular Mercies that the whole Congregation may hear and joyn in they are well provided for by Particular Collects And if besides these there be any more Particular Mercy and Deliverance which any One hath a mind to preserve the sense and memory of he may make it the Subject of his secret Praises and Thanksgivings Then Lastly for Intercessions these too may be and are happily provided for in Publick Forms in which according to the Apostle's Direction Supplications and Prayers Intercessions and Giving of thanks are made for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. and for others that we are bound to Pray for So that the daily and usual Matter of Prayer being always the same what need is there of your Talent of Variations in these Cases Is God think you delighted in new Phrases and Expressions when there is no occasion for them Does any Earthly Parent deny his Blessing to his Child because he asks it in the same Words to day that he did yesterday Much less will our Heavenly Father whose Compassions are infinitely more tender deny our Daily Bread or reject our Petitions because they are offer'd up in the same Words God is the same Yesterday to day and for ever and our wants are the same to day that they were yesterday and will be so continually And then what need can there be of varying Expressions when we address to him with whom Is no variableness neither shadow of turning Jam. 1.17 2. But besides this daily and usual matter of Prayer which is still the same there may be 2ly some more rare and occasional matter of Prayer As the want of Rain or Fair Weather the Necessities of War Famine Sickness and the like Now if you will peruse the Liturgy you will find all these admirably taken care of by Particular Offices and Collects suited to those Occasions And likewise proper Thanksgivings for them when our Prayers are answered And being so what need can there be of the various and changable Expressions of your Free Prayer We find our Saviour who could not want variety of Expressions Praying three times upon such an occasion using still the same Words and that in his Agony too when the Anguish and Bitterness of his Sufferings was sufficient to inspire him with many new Words if there had been any need of them and even in the heighth and horror of his Dereliction he was so far from affecting new Words that he made use of a short Form taken out of the Psalms My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal 22.1 So that all these Occasional Emergencies being so well provided for there can be no need of your Free Prayer in these Cases neither But besides all these there may be Lastly Other extraordinary occasions As Publick Fasts for national Sins and Calamities And likewise Publick Thanksgivings for national Mercies and Deliverances Now these too are by the Wisdom and Piety of the Church constantly taken care of by Publick and well digested Forms suitable to such Occasions So that your frequent Questions What shall we do for Prayers to solemnize the King's Deliverance from Assassinations French Invasions Jacobite Insurrections c. are all idle and frivolous For all these things as far as Authority thinks fit to take notice of them are abundantly taken care of by suitable and Publick Forms And if you know any as you say that turn Fasts into Festivals or Festivals into Humiliations you will do well to bring them to condign Punishment and not charge the Faults of private Persons upon the Publick Prayers But you ask What must we stay till Arch-Bishop Sancroft and Bishop Kenn shall send us Prayers upon such Occasions Yes Sir I think it becomes you to stay for the Orders and Directions of your Superiours in such Cases for else you may go too fast and mistake a Deliverance for a Defeat And so instead of a Sober well ordered Devotion you may offer up the Sacrifice of Fools Your over-hasty Zeal may prove a false Fire and lead you out of the way And therefore if you are big of your own Conceptions you were best stay out the due time to be delivered of them for fear of a Miscarriage But must you not have a fine conceit of yourself all this while to think you can better perform the Work of such Solemn Seasons by the present Conceptions of your own Brain than by the grave and deliberate composures of the whole Church The sum of all then is this The daily and constant Matter of Prayer is still the same And other Occasional and Extraordinay Emergencies
may be and are very well provided for by well-compos'd Forms for Solomon tells us There is nothing new under the Sun But if any such new and unheard of Occurrence should happen that Authority neither hath nor can well make provision for there is none will blame you if you either compose a Form or use your free Prayer upon such an occasion Provided it be done with modesty and due respect to the Authority of your Superiours So that these things well considered neither is the Case of Publick Forms weakened nor the necessity of Free Prayer confirm'd by your frequent Talk of Providential Events and Occurrences Your other Objection shall be answered in my next in the mean time I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. April 9. 1697. LETTER IX To J. M. SIR I Come now according to Promise to consider the second Objection against Forms which you likewise make use of as an Argument for free Prayer And that is taken from the tendency of Forms to cloy and dull your Devotion and the aptness of free Prayer to quicken and enliven the same A great Fault indeed in the One and a great Convenience in the Other if both be true but I think we shall find upon examination that neither is First then you say Publick Forms are apt to deaden and dull your Devotion But why so Why for two Reasons viz. 1. Because they are constantly the same old Words and likewise 2ly Because they are red out of a Book too Now if these be good Reasons you must be as dull as a Beetle in reading the Holy Scriptures and stark dead at the Lord's Prayer for these are always the same Words and read out of a Book too And he that can find no Life or Spirit in reading of these cannot be edifyed by any Prayer Our Saviour exhorted to the frequent reading of the Scriptures 1 Tim. 4.13 and the Apostle to give attendance to reading Which was done by the Primitive Christians with that Intention and Fervency that as Origen tells us The devout Reader seem'd to be in a manner inspir'd But you are dull'd it seems with reading old things and nothing can please you but what is new and speaking without Book Might not this Sir be the occasion of setting up new Lights above the Scriptures to please such new-fangled Humours and enlighten such dull Understandings Yea hath not this occasion'd the laying aside the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed because they are still the same old Words and read out of a Book too But tell me Sir did Christ prescribe a Form of Prayer to deaden or help the Devotion of his Followers Or did the Holy Ghost destroy all the Life and Vigour of it by putting it into Writing that it might be read and used by Christians in all Ages If this were true Oral Tradition would be a greater help to Devotion than the Oracles of God for these are old written Truths and the other the various and changeable Inventions of Men. Does not the Apostle bid us To hold fast the Form of sound words which we can neither hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 nor keep sound long if it be subject to daily Variations Must we be always Children to be pleas'd only with New Things Ephes 4.14 1 Cor. 14.20 and like them to be carried about with every wind of Doctrin Or must we not in Vnderstanding be Men by standing firm to the Ancient Faith and keeping close to the receiv'd and well-order'd Models of Devotion But why Sir should grave and well-order'd Words in Prayer put such a Damp upon your Spirits and dull your Devotion One would think that few and well-weigh'd Expressions should better tend to make Men soberly and religiously Devout than pouring out many new raw and indigested ones and that the Heart should be more at leisure to attend the great business of Prayer when Matter and Words are well prepared for it than when 't is called off and hindred by the Study and Invention of both A Wise Man would think it a great quickening of Devotion to consider that he is joyning with the whole Church at the same time and in the same Prayers and would thereby be encourag'd with greater hopes of success from the harmony and agreement of our Petitions which our Saviour hath made necessary and effectual to that end Mat. 18. But I fear Sir the dulness you speak of will be found more the Fault of the Persons than the Prayers For 't is not possible that the well-order'd Matter and Words of a pious Form should so disorder the Spirits and dull your Affections if there were not something else in the matter Have you not Sir some other Game to play upon the People which is better carried on by new Words than old Then 't is no wonder that that is accounted dull which does not move forward and advance the Design Have you not entertain'd some Prejudices your self or infus'd Prejudices into others against Forms As That they cannot provide for all Emergencies and that the constant Use and Repetition of them is apt to cloy and surfeit and so have put People out of Love with plain wholsome Food by treating them with Kickshaws and Varieties 'T is ten to one but there is something of this in the matter Your unjust Censures Outcries and Declamations against pious and publick Forms hath caused many to neglect the publick Worship and made others careless and irreverent in it And if so you must answer for your own and others dulness which you have unhappily occasioned Secondly You say That old and frequently repeated Forms are not more apt to dull than new and varied Prayers are to quicken and enliven you for you find a different Heat and Flame in such Prayers But pray Sir what kind of Heat is that you feel in such Prayers Is it not rather the Warmth and Heat of Fancy than any real Fervency of Spirit This is a frequent and dangerous Mistake and hath impos'd upon many who have taken some false Heats for true Zeal and the delusions of the Imagination for the true Devotion of the Heart But because this is not easily discern'd or understood by vulgar Minds I will endeavour as clearly as I can to discover the Delusion To this end we may observe That as in the Body there is a Natural Heat residing in the Heart which conveys warm Blood and Spirits to all the Members and in this the Health and sound Constitution of the Body mainly consists so there are sometimes the preternatural Heats of Fevers and other Distempers which too much inflame the Blood and put the Spirits into a violent and disorderly motion and this is an evil habit and indisposition of the Body Just so likewise it is with the Soul there is a pious fervency of Spirit which resides in the Heart and fills it with strong desires after God and an inward delight in him and in this consists sound and
you Sir be too positive in that For when Christ taught his Disciples to Pray he did it in these Words When you Pray say Our Father c. which is a plain Command to use these Words or this Form And 't is to think unbecomingly of the Apostles that when our Saviour taught them what to say they should be so little observant and dutiful to their Master as to neglect the Form he taught them and to prefer their Own Words before His especially when thy were so sensible of their own Inability to Pray aright So that by your leave Sir I believe that Christ did take Liberty to Enjoyn a Form of Prayer and that the Apostles and Christian Church understood him so by the constant use of that Form ever since But tho' Christ might well enough do this how does it appear say you that ever the Apostles assumed any Power of enjoyning these things 'T is certain Sir they assumed some power of enjoyning as appears by their Injunction of Abstaining from things offered to Idols and from Blood and from things strangled Acts 15.20 And I think both they and the Christian Church had and still have as much Power to enjoyn a set Form of Prayer as any of those things Yea 't is more than probable that the Apostles did exercise a Power even in this thing for we find them frequently requiring Christians to keep close to the Form of sound Words 2 Tim. 1.13 Which for ought you know might among other things comprehend the Lord's Prayer which having learnt of Christ themselves they were willing to have it learnt and kept to by all Christians Does not St. Paul will the Corinthians To mind and speak the same things 1 Cor. 1.10 in the Worship of God And how could that be without some Form of Publick Worship to joyn and agree in Again does not he command the Philippians To walk by the same Rule Phil. 3.16 Which no doubt was set and prescribed for else they could not tell how to walk by it These things we often find them pressing and enjoyning too upon the Consciences of Men which was all they could do at that time when the Secular Power was against them But assoon as the Emperours became Christians their Successors call'd in the Aid of the Temporal Power to ratify and enforce them But Forms of Prayer say you may be of excellent use and sit to be enjoyned too in Times of Ignorance and Darkness when Men can neither know nor do better And such you say was the Time when our Liturgy was compos'd but now the Meridian Light of the Gospel shines out so bright upon us there can be no such need or use of them I fear Sir this Meridian Light of yours if well look'd into will prove no better than Cimmerian Darkness You are not the first that have taken Darkness for Light the Church of Laodicea thought themselves rich and abounding in Knowledg when all the while they were poor and miserable blind and naked And I find you who no doubt think your self encompass'd with Rays somewhat in the dark as to the Nature and Gift of Prayer by placing that in the Ability of Expressions which should be put in the inward Desires and Devotion of the Heart But Thanks be to God you are pretty well coming out of it for you own it improperly plac'd in the former and there is some hope you may in time find out the proper place of it and put it in the latter But may not this be reckon'd another Instance of your Vanity and Self-conceit to think that you who cast off Forms of Prayer are in the highest Form of Christians and like the Israelites in the Land of Goshen surrounded with a Glorious and Meridian Light While others that use them are in a lower rank and like the Egyptians wrapt in black and thick Darkness You will never do well Sir till you subdue this Pride and learn to speak and think more humbly and modestly of your selves But you have two fine Similies which I find you very much insisting and relying upon though they are at best but the feeble Supports of decay'd Nature and I fear will prove but the weak Props of a sinking Cause and they are Spectacles and Crutches Concerning which give me leave to present you with a wise Observation of a Great Man viz. That there is nothing more poor in Learning than a fine and handsome Similitude when it hath no Truth to rest upon for the best that can be said of it is That it 's a pretty fine thing if it were to the purpose However let us see what use you make of them First then you ask What need have they to use Spectacles that have good Eyes of their own that is in plain terms What need have they to use Forms that can do well enough without them But pray Sir had not the Apostles and Primitive Christians as good Eyes in their Heads as most Men and yet they had those Spectacles appointed for them and used them too For when Christ taught them to Pray he gave them a Form Luke 11.2 And can you think them so unthankful as to lay it aside and say they could see well enough without such Spectacles Sure the Apostles who had their natural Sight assisted and elevated by the Light of Divine Revelation could see as far and as deep into things as any now-a-days and yet we find them acknowledging That they saw through a Glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 i. e. as some render it Through Spectacles And if such Quick-sighted persons stood in need of such Glasses to help their Eye-sight certainly now the World is grown older and more dim-sighted there is none may disdain to use them But you will still be setting up your self as a Spectacle of Pride and Folly in pretending to higher Attainments than any went before you not considering that these things were enjoined when Men were endow'd with as great Gifts and Graces as any can now pretend to and are still used by Men of far greater Abilities than they who think they have no need of them But you have another fine Simile and ask Why such should be forc'd to use Crutches that can stand and go upon their own Legs You compared Forms of Prayer before to Spectacles the Weakness whereof is now so obvious that any ordinary Eye may see through it and now you compare them to Crutches which a Man would be glad to hang up and lay aside as soon as he may And here you magnify the strength of your own Legs and tell me That you and some others that you know can go on well enough in this Duty without such Helps But pray Sir be not too bold nor trust too much to your own Legs but take St. Pauls Advice Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10.12 We saw before that the Apostles used these Spectacles and we may see them using these Crutches too which
is but another word for the same thing and yet I suppose they had as little need of them as you or any body else We find the Disciples of Christ confessing their own Impotence and saying They knew not how or what to Pray for as they ought And Christ gave them a Form of found Words with which he would have them go to their Heavenly Father He doth not say Use this Form till you have better Gifts and your Legs be grown stronger but absolutely and indefinitely When you Pray say Our Father c. Luke 11.2 And the Christian Church hath observ'd and done so ever since Will you say or think that all before you have gone upon Crutches and that you only have arrived to that sure-footing as to be able to lay them aside and go without them This farther shews what a fine Conceit you have of yourself But I think you had better rely upon those Crutches which Christ made and his Apostles used than stand too much upon your own Legs And now I think you may easily see that these fine Fetches of yours have more of Pride than Argument in them But there is one thing more which must be considered in this place and that is you say That God must be served with the best you have And you say true but 't was not so wisely done to contradict it again and say That God is better serv'd with the Incongruities and Barbarisms of Conceived Prayer than the more Elegant and Exact Composure of well-digested Forms I hope Sir you will not say that Nonsense and Incongruities are better or more acceptable to God than proper and well-order'd Sense But this is another of your Incongruities And yet you quote St. Austin for it That where the Heart is sound God accepts a few Solecisms and Barbarisms in Prayer c. Indeed where these are the best that we have or can get God accepts according to what a Man hath and not according to what a Man hath not But where the Church hath made better provision for us 1 Cor. 8.12 he will not away with such blind and lame Sacrifices Mal. 1.13 And having in our Flock a Male will not be put off with a Corrupt thing In short Sir you may easily perceive that you have as much need of these Spectacles as other Men to help the Weakness of your Sight in these matters And the Lameness of your Arguments as well as Prayers may call upon you to make use of these Crutches With which therefore you may do well to furnish your self with all speed Your loud and frequent Out-cries about silencing so many brave Men for not using Forms of Prayer shall be heard and considered in my next In the mean time I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. LETTER XII To J. M. SIR WE are yet upon the Injunction of Forms of Prayer for publick Worship against which you have Two farther Exceptions the one that it hath silenced many hundred of able and painful Ministers and deprived the Church of their Labours the other that it hath set up and encouraged a lazy Ministry in their room A heavy Charge indeed But let us see how it 's made out First then you say that the Enjoyning of Forms hath stopt the Mouth of many able and painful Ministers and struck many Hundreds of them Dumb at one clap Well! But how was this done I hope here was no violence used in stopping their Mouths and forcing them to perpetual Silence no 't was their own voluntary Refusal of those publick Prayers which many of them had used themselves and most of them judged lawful to be used and all of them might have used if they pleas'd Why then it seems they Silenced themselves and made it their own Choice and what reason have they to complain of their own Act But 't was the Enjoyning these Prayers that made them unlawful and hindred their Compliance with them How so What could the Enjoyning a lawful thing alter its Nature and make it Sinful Is there such a Malignity in the Power of Superiours as to Poyson a good Action and turn it into Evil meerly by Commanding it I hope Sir you have better thoughts of the higher Powers than so To state this Matter aright Was this Injunction made by good and sufficient Authority and was there wise and good Reason for the making of it Yes it was done by our lawful Superiours both in Church and State And that too to preserve Order and Unity and to put a stop to those Swarms of Sects and Schisms which the Liberty of free Prayer had brought in Why it seems then they were Silenced by Law and such a one too as they might and ought to have obey'd Where is the Fault then of stopping the Mouths of Gainsayers and putting to Silence the Ignorance of foolish Men Besides is it not the Will of God that Men shall pay a due Reverence and Obedience to all lawful Commands of our Superiours who have the rule over us in the Lord Did not God cause the Earth to open its Mouth and Silence those that spake against Moses and Aaron Numb 16.32 who all perished in the gainsaying of Korah Do we not read of some whose Mouths must be kept with Bit and Bridle Psal 32.9 lest they shall fall upon thee And have not many fallen upon their Governours this way speaking Evil of the Rulers of the People and Slandering the Footsteps of Gods Anointed And does not the Apostle speak of some unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers Tit. 1.10 whose Mouths must be stopt And is not this the case of all such as speak and act against good Orders So then for ought I can find These Men are silenced by the Law of God as well as Man for Christ himself hath commanded that if any neglect to hear the Church Mat. 18.17 that is to obey the good Orders of it he must be thrust out of it and be esteemed but as a Heathen Man and a Publican Where then is the Hardship in the Case Why you say Governours are to Rule not by Constraint but Willingly But what if some are unwilling to be ruled If the sense of Duty will not constrain them must there be no restraint laid upon their Disobedience What then will become of Government Will not this leave every one to do what is right in their own Eyes Sit down Sir and consider this But you will have me consider the hard Terms that were put upon these Men in order to their Conformity I shall Sir Why then First They were required to give their unfeigned Assent and Consent to all that is used in the Publick Prayers of the Church or else they must hold their Tongues And is not this very fit think you that Men should assent to the Truth and consent to the use of what is duly established Would you have them say one thing in the Service of God and think
another and play the Hypocrites in Publick Worship I hope not But there were Subscriptions Oaths Declarations and the like required which is a Burthen upon Mens Consciences Why so Do not all Societies require quire some Oaths of Fidelity from all that are admitted into them Do not all the Reformed Churches abroad exact an Acknowledgment and Subscription to their Confessions and Publick Worship and may not the Church of England expect the same Security that all other Societies require from their Members These Sir are some of those crude indigested Notions of Mr. Baxter of which I told you in the beginning and which have been largely answered and refuted by many learned Men particularly by Dr. Morrice in his Treatise of Episcopacy Dr. Falkner in his Libertas Ecclesiastica and Dr. Saywel in his Evangelical and Catholick Vnity which I therefore recommend to your serious and impartial perusal not doubting if you please to read them you may soon see the Vanity of these Cavils and come to a better Light than you have at present in these Matters But those Godly Men that were thus silenced had another and better way of Praying than by Forms and could perform that Duty in a more Spiritual and Edifying manner by their own Gift Pray Sir Who is to judge of that Hath not God appointed Rulers in his Church that all things may be done decently and in order And are not we required to obey them for the Lords sake And how can this be if every one may take the liberty of Praying in Publick after what manner and way he please Our Superiours think fit to settle an uniform and regular way of Publick Worship that according to our Saviour's Advise Men may agree in what they ask and speak the same things in their Prayers And must Men instead of observing such wise and wholesome Laws bring a Babel and Confusion of Tongues into the Church and Pray one against another I hope Sir you would not have this done But if we must have a Liturgy you say then let us have the Reformed Liturgy made at the Savoy which is much more correct than the other It seems you would have the ancient Liturgy compos'd by our Pious and Learned Reformers laid aside like an old Almanack out of date and nothing can please you but a new and reformed Liturgy 'T is not to be doubted Sir when that is grown old you will grow weary of that too And if we must reform our Prayers as oft as some new fangled Persons will find Flaws in them we must have a new Liturgy as well as a new Almanack every Year Have you never heard what ill things have been done under a pretence of Reformation And do not all wise Men know the Danger and Mischief of Innovation But the Reformed Liturgy is more correct than the other Are you Sir Or your Superiours to judge of that Have not they the Care and Government of the Church put into their Hands And must they lay aside the Antient well compos'd Prayers of the Church meerly to gratify your Reforming and new fangled Humour To what will this Pride of yours bring you You already set your self above the High Powers and 't is to be feared your next Step will be that of Lucifers to be like the Most High But while you make such loud outcries against silencing so many brave Men you have forgotten the silencing of all the Learned Bishops and Regular Clergy of the Church of England in the Days of the great Rebellion And that too by an Usurp'd Power that took away the Life of one of the best Princes and pull'd down the Discipline of one of the best Established Churches in the Christian World Whereas the silencing of your brave Men was only stopping the Mouths of those that had open'd them to do all this Mischief For is it not well known how they reviled that good King and aspers'd his Government and by the Venom of an evil Tongue corrupted the Loyalty of a great part of the Kingdom And certainly if the Mouth of Wickedness must be stopt never any Persons in any Age were more justly silenced But would you be served so Put your self in their Case Sir If you put your self in the Case of any Offender there is no doubt but you would willingly escape unpunished how just and necessary soever it were to to be inflicted For Punishment is against the Grain of Nature and all Men are so tender and sond of Themselves as to desire to escape it You mistake Sir that Golden Rule of Doing as we would be done by which must be understood of those Regular and Lawful Desires we may reasonably have for our selves not of those inordinate Wishes which Partiality and Self-Love may create in us For the Magistrate is to deal with Offenders not as they could wish nor as himself in their Case would be apt to desire For there is none how guilty soever but would avoid Punishment but as Law and Justice do require and direct him If these Men then were so justly silenced by the Law of God and Man how came they to speak again and in Conventicles too which they themselves had spoken so much against Sure they had no Warrant to open there Nor can they yet speak as Men having Authority For tho' the Penalty be suspended their Obligation to silence still continues What then have they a Commission from Heaven to speak without or against Lawful Authority No The People strike them upon the Back and encourage them to speak and promise to hear them let what will come of it And this is all the Warrant and Authority they have yet to break this silence But is it not pity the Church should be deprived of the Labours of so many Godly Men Sir it had been much better for the Church if it had never known the Labours of most of them For they laboured hard to bring Confusion into the Church and Anarchy into the State and both of them groan to this day under the sad Effects of their Labours But Thanks be to God the Church has no need or reason to desire any more of their Labours For they have only made work for other and better Labourers sc To root out those Seeds of Discord and Division which they have sown among us And if it be possible to plant Peace and Unity and Order in their Room But how can this be expected from such a lazy Ministry as you say Forms of Prayer have set up This Sir is your next Plea against the Injunction of them concerning which all that I shall say at present is that 't is another just reason for silencing your brave Men for the Mouth of Calumny ought to be stopt and 't is but necessary to strike Detractors dumb And whether this be any more than a down-right Calumny must be examined in my next I am Your hearty Friend and Wellwisher M. H. May 12. 1697. LETTER XIII To J. M. SIR YOur
next Objection against the Injunction of publick Forms of Prayer is That it hath not only silenced many godly Ministers but hath set up and encouraged a lazy Ministry in their stead This is your beloved Topick upon which you delight to insist and upon all Occasions recur to For I find you Decking and Adorning your silenc'd Brethren with all the fine Feathers of able painful and godly Ministers whilst you set forth the regular Clergy in the blackest and most odious Shapes that your Talent of Variations can represent them Here you call it a Lazy Ministry as if it consisted of a Pack of idle Drones that will take no pains and are good for nothing At other times you stile it a lame Ministry that can't go without Crutches and sometimes a purblind Ministry that can't see without Spectacles 'T is much you had not added the other common Epithets of Ignorant Sottish and Scandalous Ministry which are the usual Complements you pass upon the conformable Clergy It seems Sir you are not so far silenced but you can open your Mouths in rude and railing Accusations For one of your silenced Brethren tells us That Forms of Prayer have let in such Ministers into the Church of whom all that have any concern for the Glory of God and the Church's Repute have cause to blush and be ashamed Now Sir If you had any Modesty left you could not but blush and be ashamed of such false and impudent Calumnies To tell you it s against the Rules of Civility and good Manners thus to call Names and asperse any would perhaps but little affect you who have been so little bred to them Or to say The Principles of Reason and Morality if hearkned unto would teach you better things will be as little regarded since you are arrived to higher Attainments than to be brought down to common Reason and dull Morality Let us hear then what the Holy Scriptures for which you pretend a great Veneration teach in this Matter and learn from thence how we are to order our Words and Actions towards each other and there we find many strict and severe Cautions against evil Speaking Lying and Slandering Titus 3.2 Speak evil of no Man saith the Apostle And Charity is so far from Speaking 1 Cor. 13.5 that it thinketh no evil Indeed there is scarce any Sin marked with a blacker Brand of Infamy than this of evil Speaking and Slandering our Brethren And according to the different Degrees and Stations of the Persons evil spoken of does the Guilt of this Sin increase to speak evil of the Ruler of the People Jude 3. is mounted up to Blasphemy and to speak evil of Dignities is part of the Character of those Persons whom God reserves for the Punishment of the last and great Day Now there are no Men of whose Reputation we ought to be more tender than of those that Minister about Holy Things For the Success of their Ministry depends much upon the Honour and Esteem they have in the World and to Vilifie and Defame them is to render their Persons useless and their Office contemptible Yea the Relation they bear to Christ as his Embassadours ought to secure them from Obloquy and procure to them the Veneration of Mankind For as the Honour so the Contempt too cast on them will redound to him that sent them And therefore the Apostle gives a strict Charge so to account of them 1 Cor. 4.1 as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God And upon that account to think them worthy of double Honour 1 Tim. 5.17 And does not this very well consist think you with those black Calumnies and foul Aspersions which you are won't to load them withall You will do well Sir to consider whose Character it is to be the Accuser of the Brethren and whose Work you are doing whilst you thus lessen and revile the Ministers of Christ You know the Devil hath his Name from a Calumniator and they who delight in venting Lies and Slanders derive their Pedigree from him who was a Liar from the beginning and the Father of them But let us see what Colour of Truth there is in these vile Reflections Are the Clergy then unfound in their Principles No this is not much pretended What then are their Abilities too Slender and Insufficient for their Calling This they will scarce say neither I am sure they cannot say it with any Colour of Truth the Generality of those within the Church being Men of far greater Worth and Learning than they who have shut themselves out of it Is it their Lives then that have given this Offence Yes this is the main Point they insist upon For some say they are Scandalous and others Lazy But Sir is there any Church upon Earth that is without Blemish and without Spot Is it not the sole Priviledge of the Church Triumphant in Heaven to be Presented pure without Spot Ephes 5.27 or Wrinkle or any such thing Was there not a Judas among the Twelve Apostles and will there be no disorderly Brother among so many thousand Brethren Are all Saints think you that go to Conventicles No 't is obvious they are as great Sinners as any of the Galileans tho' they pretend such things Will not Tares spring up among the Wheat and continue so too there being no Separation to be made between them till the Harvest And therefore all Separation now upon pretence of greater Purity is rather a piece of the Vain-glory of a Pharisee than the Mark of a true Christian Besides Sir you must not be too credulous of evil Reports For some are vented out of Malice and others are spread upon Design And therefore the Apostle exhorts not to believe 1 Tim. 5.19 or take up an Accusation against an Elder without good Grounds and the Testimony of two or three Witnesses But if you know any for certain to be loose in their Lives and lazy in their Calling Why do you not take the Advice and Method of our Saviour to reclaim them which is privately to admonish them and tell them of their Faults and if that will not do to take one or two more and if that will not prevail you are to acquaint the Church where Christ hath appointed Rulers either to reform or remove them Math. 8.15.16 This is the direction that Christ gives in this Matter Not to whisper about in Corners or to take pleasure in publishing the Failings and Infirmities of other Men for this is to rejoyce in Iniquity 1 Cor. 4.13 whereas Charity casts a Veil and covereth a Multitude of Sins and will rather hide than disclose anothers Nakedness Yet after all you will be hard put to it to find out an abler or better Clergy for the number of them in any part of the Christian world than that which you so unhansomely asperse The word of God being no where more diligently and faithfully Preached The Sacraments more
duly and decently Administred and all the Parts of the Ministerial Function more solemnly Performed than they are at this Day by the regular Sons of the Church of England But how come Forms of Prayer all this while to be charged with the Failings of those that use them Have godly well composed Prayers of themselves any tendency to a vitious Life or does the devout and decent using of them contribute any thing to the doing the Work of the Lord negligently No certainly There is some other design in these Calumnies Namely By disparaging publick Prayer to make way for free Prayer and by declaiming against the Laziness and Lukewarmness of those that use the one to magnifie the Zeal and Piety of such as use the other This is one of the Artifices of Seducers and a piece of the cunning Craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive Is not this your chief Pretence for creeping into other mens Charges to supply the Defects of a Lazy Ministry Does not your Oracle Mr. Baxter plead this for his Conventicling That he was therein a poor Assistant to the conformable Clergy But what want is there of your Assistance where able Ministers are legally setled Or who desires your Assistance And you know for any to thrust themselves into anothers Business without his Request or Consent is to be a Busie-body in other mens Matters the Word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.15 which signifies an Intruder into anothers Parish or Diocess and to invade his Cure and Charge 1 Thes 4.11 And the Apostle exhorts all that would study to be quiet not to intermeddle with other Mens but to do their own Business Besides This is so far from an Assistance that 't is a great Hinderance and Discouragment to a faithful Minister to find one creeping into his Parish and drawing away the People committed to his Charge Sowing the Seeds of Discord and Division among them and poisoning them with evil Principles of Schism and Sedition◠And is not this the Assistance that you are wont to give to the conformable Clergy Is it not your great Business to study to draw from the Church to fill the Conventicle and that merely to make Merchandize of such unstable Souls And is not this a great Comfort think you to a good Shepherd to see the Wolf coming to scatter and devour the Flock And are not the People mightily assisted too by being misled and preyed upon by false Teachers Have you never read of some pretended Shepherds that come not in by the Door into the Sheep-fold John 10.1 but climb up some other way and therefore are said to be no better than Thieves and Robbers in Stealing away the Sheep from their lawful Pastors and Betraying them to their utter Destruction Take heed Sir That you be not found One of that number for to vilifie the Persons of the Clergy and to disparage the Prayers of the Church merely to draw away the Hearts of the People from both are very bad signs of a good Shepherd and how far your Discourses and Practices have tended this way you will do well to consider I am Your faithful Friend and Well-wisher M. H. May 19. 1697. LETTER XIV To J. M. SIR I Promis'd in my last to proceed to what you offer'd from Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins but you have since cut out some other Work for me which must and shall be dispatch'd before I come to that Argument taken from Authority assuring you that it shall be consider'd in due time First then you desire me to prove to you That our Blessed Saviour prescribed his Form to be used in the same Words by his Disciples and Followers which you say is asserted in my Sermon and Letter of the 6th Instant And I think with very good Reason and Authority in both And to satisfie your Request I shall prove it 1 From the express Command of our Saviour Luke 11.2 who will'd his Disciples when they Pray'd to say Our Father which art in Heaven which is so plain a Precept that supposing our Saviour to intend the use of those Words could scarce be more clearly expres'd for 't is as if he had said Whensoever you pray solemnly omit not to use this Form of Words And so you may find it paraphras'd by the Learned Dr. Hammond But you say the same Words are not used in one Evangelist that are in another I suppose you mean that St. Matthew's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after this manner or in this wise pray ye is somewhat different from St. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when ye pray say c. Now that these import the same thing is evident from that Form of Blessing prescribed by God to Aaron and his Sons Num. 6.3 In this wise in the Septuagint it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall bless the Children of Israel which is generally own'd to be an Invariable Form of Benediction and hath been used as such in the Jewish and Christian Church 'T is thought indeed by some learned Men that the Disciples upon the first hearing of the Prayer in Christ's Sermon on the Mount did not so well take it for a Form And therefore our Saviour about a year after upon a Motion of theirs made to him more clearly expres'd it and order'd them when they Pray'd to say Our Father c which put it out of doubt that it was intended as a Form Secondly This may be proved from the Occasion of our Saviour's prescribing this Form which was upon the Disciples Request to him To teach them to pray as John also taught his Disciples Now that St. John taught his Disciples a Form of Prayer according to the Custom of the Jewish Teachers is a matter beyond all Doubt and Contradiction And that the Disciples used the Forms that were delivered to them by their Teachers Vid. Lightfoot on Mat. 6.9 I do not find question'd by any Now our Saviour approving what John did herein and practising the same upon their Request by teaching them to pray as John had done before plainly shews that he gave them a Form to be used by them and that the Disciples did accordingly use it unless you will suppose they had a less Opinion of Christ's Ability to teach them to pray and likewise a less regard to the Form he taught them than all other Disciples had for their Teachers which must be absurd to imagine Thirdly This may be proved from the Frame and Composure of this Prayer which is not barely a Laying down the general Matter of Prayer and leaving the Disciples to Word it as they thought fit but putting it into an Exact Orderly and Comprehensive Form and dictating the Expressions they were to use in it with a Command annext to it when they Pray'd to say Our Father c. And can you think that when Christ had thus admirably Ordered and Worded their Petitions for them the Disciples who
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
other Godly Forms of our Own and Others composing for Private Devotion we are sufficiently assisted to put up acceptable Prayers unto God without the help of Inspiration This is Sir a brief Account of the Nature and Use of this Extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration together with the Time and Reason of its expiration But you ask me Where this Extraordinary Gift is called Praying by the Spirit 1 Cor. 14.15 In Answer to which tho' St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be as you say translated praying With the Spirit yet it may as well be rendred praying By the Spirit there being no Particle to determine it more to the one than to the other and both the Nature of the Gift and St. Paul's Discourse about it seems to lead rather to this than that But however tho' it be not so call'd in Scripture to which I never restrained it yet I presume you have often heard Praying by the immediate Dictates and Inspirations of the Holy Ghost for Brevity's sake called Praying by the Spirit Yea I doubt not but you have heard Praying by Extempore-Effusions called by that Name which hath led many a well meaning Man into great Mistakes about it For tho you may be wise enough to know that this Extraordinary Gift is ceased and so pretend not to immediate Inspirations yet there are many other Sectaries that are not arrived to this but imagine the fond and sudden Suggestions of their own Fancys in Prayer as much the Dictates of the Holy Ghost as any the Inspirations of the Apostles And there are too many Designing Men who for their own Ends are willing enough to have them think so And therefore you would do well Sir to undeceive as many as you can and to rectifie their Mistakes in this Matter But you would have me tell you why could not the Apostles and Disciples of Christ pray without Inspiration when they had the Old Testament and some of the New together with the Lord's Prayer for their Direction The reason of this Sir is plain because our Saviour made choice of the most Ignorant and Illiterate Persons for his Disciples and Apostles that his Institution might appear wholly Divine and not carried on by the help or mixture of Humane Wisdom You know Christ's Followers consisted not of the Scribes and Pharisees and other Learned Rabbies who where well vers'd in the Law for these would not believe on him Joh. 7.48 Mat. 4.21 22 but of a Company of Fishermen and Mechanicks that knew little or nothing of the Law and less of any other Learning And these certainly had great need of Inspiration before they could say or do any thing in the Work they were called to And therefore Christ first gave them his Own Prayer which they used and kept to till he sent them his Holy Spirit to assist them with farther Inspirations and Gifts of the Holy Ghost But how did they pray in the mean time had they no other Publick Prayers or Service but the Lord's Prayer Yes there was the Jewish Service which consisted of many Forms of Prayer and Blessings appointed by God Almighty besides the Psalms of David and the Law of Moses which were daily read in the Temple and the Synagogues and resorted to for some time by our Saviour and his Apostles Besides which Christ frequently pray'd with and for them and daily Instructed them in the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven But you ask when this Extraordinary Gift was vouchsafed to the Apostles and Others was there no Ordinary Gift of Prayer Or if there were What was it Sir I see no great need of your Ordinary Gift of Prayer for publick Worship when the Publick Offices of Religion were perform'd by the Immediate Dictates and Inspirations of the Holy Ghost but if there were any Ordinary Gift I suppose it was that of Composing Pious Forms of Prayer for the common use of Christian Converts for we find St. Paul ordering Timothy That Prayers and Supplications and Intercessions and Giving of Thanks be made for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. which is supposed by Learned Men to be a Direction given to Timothy for the Composing some pious Forms for the use of those Christians that were committed to his Charge And that they should be so full and comprehensive as to take in all parts of Prayer and extend to all sorts of Persons But for your Ordinary Gift of Praying Extempore or by sudden Conceptions there is not the least Foot-step of it either in the Holy Scriptures or in any History of the Primitive Times I hope this may serve to clear up some of those obscure and confused Notions you seem to have of this Gift Which is heartily wished by Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. May 28. 1697. Your next Quere is whether those inspired Persons who were best able have left any publick Prayers for future Generations And who are those uninspired Persons who have now Commission to do so which shall be answered in my next LETTER XVI To J. M. SIR I gave you an Account in my last of that Extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration granted to the Apostles and some other of the Primitive Christians together with the Reasons both of the Conferring and the Ceasing of it Your next Quere is How the Publick Service of the Church was celebrated upon and after the ceasing of Inspiration The Answer whereunto will lead me to consider the Antiquity of Liturgies and to shew the antient and constant Use of them from the Days of the Apostles to the present time But 1. You ask me where those Inspired Persons who were best able have made or left any Publick Prayers upon the compleating of the Sacred Canon Now Sir You must know that the knowledge of this being matter of Fact and at such a distance too can no otherwise come to us but by Tradition and the Testimony of able and competent Witnesses who have recorded and conveigh'd it down thro' every Age. And if you will take their words they tell us that about the latter end of the Apostles Days when the Christian Church began to be settled St. Peter who was the first Bishop of Rome compos'd a Liturgy for the use of those whom he had converted to the Faith and that St. James the first Bishop of Jerusalem did the like for those committed to his Charge And that the same was done by St. Mark for his Charge at Alexandria Which Liturgies are all extant at this Day and tho' as may easily be supposed of things of that nature they have undergone some Alterations in so long a Tract of Time yet they are by Learned Men thought to be for the most part the Genuine Works of those Apostles And your Friend Mr. Beza plainly intimates so much for he saith 1 Cor. 11.34 Quae ad ordinem spectant ut Precum Formulae et caetera ejusmodi disposuit Apostolus in
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
People you have gathered or rather stolen out of anothers Flock which is not common to Men Indeed one of the greatest Necessities they labour under is the want of Instruction in the Nature and Necessity of Order Decency and Unity in the Worship of God and the danger of Schism and Separation from it that they may return to their lawful Pastors and to Christ the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls But they are never like to have this Want supply'd by you nor to hear nor learn any thing of it The truth of the matter is the People know your Necessities and you find them more forward to relieve them than you are to let them know or redress theirs But you would fain know whether Atheistical Governours Mahometans Arians Papists may give order for these Composures and oblige all Ministers to use them and no other Sir In what hands soever God Almighty is pleased to lodge the Supreme Power you are to obey all their Lawful Commands for the Lord's sake from whom they derive their Power and be thankful unto God if they do not exceed the Bounds of their Commission But if at any time they should transgress the Limits of their Authority by requiring any sinful or unlawful thing you are directed what to do viz. To obey God rather than Man which you know was the case of the Apostles and Primitive Christians under their Heathen Governours But 't is no small piece of Ingratitude to vent such vile Insinuations under so Pious a Prince and such Wise Governours as God hath blest us withal where the hardest thing you can complain of is the enjoyning Forms of Prayer which were prescribed by Christ himself and used by Christians ever since But there is a witty Argument of a Brother of yours against the Antiquity of Forms that must not be omitted and that is this Lactantius and other ancient Fathers tell us that the Christians in their Times Pray'd with their Eyes lifted up to Heaven and not looking down on a Book and thence infers That they Pray'd without Book and consequently without Forms An Igenious Observation and worthy to be engraven on Marble for the benefit of all succeeding Ages But is it impossible think you to take off the Eye from a Book in a known Form And is there no leisure to look up to Heaven in the use of those Prayers which many can recite memoriter and most Carptim Stringente Oculo Certainly this is not only possible but daily practised and therefore half an Eye may see the Weakness of this Objection But it may be worth the enquiry how they may be said to lift up their Eyes to Heaven who Pray winking and with their Eyes shut Are not such in the number of those who have Eyes and see not or wilfully shut them against the Light You may consider this at your leisure I am Your Humble Servant M. H. June 5th 1697. LETTER XVII To J. M. SIR THe next thing you desire is to give you the Character of the Pharisees and their Prayers which I here send you that you may the better see how much you resemble them And to that end I shall begin First With the Name which coming from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to separate shews a Pharisee to be all one with a Separatist and that they were so called from their Separation for they struck off both from the Religious and civil Society of their Brethren and were the great Separatists in the Jewish Church How well you are like them in this is obvious to all Men of Sense who cannot but see and bewail your Separation And yet you would fain perswade the People that you are no Separatist but only meet to serve God in several Places But Sir Is your Separation think you only Local as one Parish is from another Is it not a real withdrawing from the Establish'd Worship of the Church and setting up different Communions and different ways of Worship in opposition to it Is it not Altare adversus Altare a Conventicle against a Church With what Face can you deny so plain a Truth But herein you shew your self a true Pharisee from the Name Let us go on Secondly To the Sect of the Pharisees and here we shall find them pretending to greater Strictness than other Men as the ground of their Separation and therefore we find it called the strict Sect of the Pharisees for they confin'd all Holiness to their own Sect stiling others the People of the Earth Acts 26.5 and thinking themselves the only Darlings and Favorites of Heaven and therefore withdrew from them for fear of having their Holiness stain'd and defiled by them Their Language was Stand off come not nigh me for I am holyer than thou They blam'd our Saviour for not keeping the Sabbath with their Strictness they did not like the Freedom of his Conversation I 〈◊〉 7.34 v. 39. calling him a Glutton and a Wine-biber for eating and drinking with Publicans and Sinners and when a certain Woman fell at his Feet and Kissed them one of them said if he were a Prophet he would know who or what manner of Woman this is that toucheth him for she is a Sinner And can there be a more lively resemblance both of your Pretences and Practices Do not you look upon your selves as the only Saints and withdraw from others because they are Sinners Do you not delight to whisper about and aggravate the Failings of others and applaud the Purity and Sanctity of your own Sect Is there any thing more visible both in your Discourses and Demeanor than this which was the very Guise of the Pharisees and the Hypocrites But I proceed Thirdly to the Office of the Pharisees and that was to teach and expound the Law unto the People and this they did with so much Insincerity and Falshood that our Saviour was forc'd to expound it over again Mat. 5. to rescue it from their false Glosses and corrupt Interpretations by which they made void the Law of God And how well you resemble them in this way of teaching the People a very slender Observation may inform us You know Sir how Curse ye Meroz hath been apply'd formerly And what use hath been made of that of the Psalmist To bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron You cannot forget how all that was threatned against the Kings of the Canaanites and Amorites whom God for their Idolatry commanded to be rooted out was made use of against one of the best Princes that ever sate upon a Throne and you cannot but know how those Words of the Apostle Come out from among them and be ye Separate which was a call from Heathenism and Idolatry have been made use of to warrant Factions and Separations in a Christian Church It s too well known and felt too how the Gospel of Christ hath been made of none effect by such perverse
Interpretations so that if you will behold your self in this Glass of the Law you may soon see the Face of a Pharisee But let us go on Fourthly To the Doctrin of the Pharisees and this we shall find to consist of many rigorous and uncommanded Austerities For they placed Holiness in some things which God never required and fix'd a Brand of Sinfulness on others which were no where forbidden Not to eat with unwashen Hands was a great piece of their Religion and they superstitiously abstained from many things which were never made unlawful to them and is not this the very Hue and Complexion of your Religion Do you not place a great part of your Holiness in separating from others and using Extempore Prayers which are no where commanded And likewise in religiously abstaining from Forms of Prayer kneeling at the Sacrament and other innocent and indifferent Rites which are no where Prohibited By which means you either willfully or unwillingly fall into that Superstition which you are wont so frequently and falsely to charge upon others But I proceed Fifthly To the Life and Manners of the Pharisees who tho pretending to greater Holiness are often rebuked by our Saviour for many and great Enormities for they neglected Judgment and Justice and other weightier matters of the Law They passed by the Duties of Morality and Honesty as things too low for Men of their Attainments We find our Saviour Cautioning his Disciples against the Leaven of the Pharisees 1 Cor. 5.8 which leaven'd the whole Lump of their Sect and that was of different kinds for we read of the Leaven of Pride which puff'd them up Luk. 12 1. the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness which soured their Minds against other Men the Leaven of Hypocrisy which made them all Shew and no Substance And as this Leaven was of different kinds so did it appear in different Effects they had it in their Face Mat 16.12 which made them look soure they had it in their Tongue which made them speak great swelling Words of Vanity they had it in their Doctrin which made it smell of rank Corruption and Superstition In a Word they were leavened all over and they who boasted so much of their greater Sanctity were by our Saviour set forth as the greatest Instances and Monuments of Hypocrisy I am loth here to draw the Parallel and therefore shall leave you and others to judge how like it is But Lastly The main thing you refer to in the Pharisees is their Prayers which were remarkable for Two things their Length and their Loudness Mat 23.14 for when they had a mind to rob the Spittle or devour a Widows House for a pretence they made long Prayers when they were willing to be heard and seen of Men Mat. 6.5 they Opened upon all occasions and prayed in the very Corners of the Streets and perhaps Face cannot better answer to Face in Water than your Prayers do to theirs both in the make and design of them and 't was an Ingenious Observation that few are like the Pharisees for their long Prayers who are not extreamly like them for something else But you ask Where are the Pharisees blamed for their Babling and vain Repetitions in Prayer Sir Are they not sharply rebuk'd by our Saviour for their long Prayers which together with their long Robes were made a Covering for all their Rapine and Injustice And are not vain Repetitions the main Ornaments and Ingredients of long Prayers Do you not find one of them going to God with this proud and impertinent Harangue Luke 18.11 12 c. God I thank thee I am not as other Men Extortioners Adulterers c. and after he had reckoned up some of his Virtues and Perfections thought that God could do no less than Justifie him as much as he had done himself and what think you Sir Is not this vain Babling Can any thing be more Irksom and Nauseous both to God and Man But is not this a Misquotation or extemporary Effusion say you to affirm that of the Pharisees which was spoken of the Heathens No 't is a frequent and ordinary Allusion to apply the same Words to one that were spoken of another when they were both guilty of the same Fault and this was the Case of the Pharisees who falling into the vain Repetitions of the Heathen and thinking with them to be heard for their long Prayers or which is all one for their much Speaking might be justly Charg'd and Rebuk'd for both And yet you seem to insult here as if you had got a Victory and vainly Triumph in the empty Glory of your own Ignorance and Folly But you ask farther whether a short Collect or Litany will more prevail with God than a long one and whether good Affections in a long Prayer be not as prevalent with him as in a short Litany Sir Mat. 8.2 Luke 18.13 28. We find many Prayers condemn'd for their Length but none for their Shortness Yea the greatest Successes that we read that have attended Prayer have been found to be given to short ones Solomon who was the wisest of Men Eccl. 5.2 hath not only preferr'd these but required them too in all our Addresses unto God willing that our Words unto him should be few and that for good reason too for if a Word be enough to the Wise there can be no need of many to him who is Wisdom it self Besides few Words are a better sign of Modesty and Reverence to Superiors and consequently of that Humility that becomes us in our Approaches to our Maker than tedious and long winded Speeches But what is most considerable great intention of mind and such as should go along with our Prayers spend the Spirits too fast to continue long and therefore 't is impossible to keep up that heighth of Affection and Devotion in a long Prayer that we may in a short For Experience shews us that Length and Tediousness blunt the edge of the Mind and make it to grow weary and impatient Whereas Breaks and Interruptions call upon the Mind afresh and renew its Vigour and Intention And therefore many short Collects each of which beginning with some Attribute of God proper to usher in the Request and ending with the Merits and Mediation of Christ must give greater life to our Prayers and add greater Efficacy and Success to them than one long and continued Prayer can do So likewise in Litanies where the People have a share in each Supplication their Devotion may be much better Awakened and Enlivened than in a continued Harangue where the People have no part and many times can scarce say Amen Thus Sir I have given you the Picture of a Pharisee at his Prayers If it look too hard upon you and shew you the Features and Lineaments of your own Complexion you must thank your self not only for imitating and transcribing so bad a Copy but for calling so earnestly for the Character of
as a Translation of the Mass and a stinting the Spirit of Prayer by which means he greatly distracted the Minds of the People drew many from the Church and sowed those Seeds of Discord among them that are not rooted out to this day After his Examination he cunningly made his Escape and hastened to Rome where he gave the Pope an account of this Negotiation who being well pleas'd with his good Service gave him a liberal Reward for his pains and this was the occasion of that Act of Parliament in the days of that Queen requiring all People to repair every Sunday to Divine Service under the penalty of Twelve pence for every default which was to bring them back again to the Established Worship of the Church whom he and other Emissaries had seduced from it Thomas Heath in like manner venting his Talent of free Prayer in several places deluded many poor Souls into a vain Conceit and love of this which he called a more Spiritual way of Worship and having spent some time in this vile Trade of perverting and seducing the People was at length discovered by a Letter casually dropt from him which betrayed his Correspondence with the Jesuits abroad and being thereupon farther searched there were found about him his Beads with a License from the Fraternity of the Jesuits and a Bull from the Pope to Preach what Doctrine that Society pleas'd for the dividing of Protestants The Examinations of both these are published at large by the learned Dr. Nalson in a Treatise entituled Foxes and Firebrands to which I refer you 'T is not to be doubted Sir as that learned Author observes but from the Success of their Agents the Pope and Colledge de Propaganda fide have been industrious enough to improve this Advantage to stock us with disguised Emissaries to increase our Differences and inflame Mens Minds in hopes to destroy our Church by our own Divisions How active and buisy they have been ever since the Reformation to embroil us the Histories of the late Reigns may easily satisfy us what great hand they had in raising and fomenting the Civil Wars what Part they Acted in the Tragedy of King Charles the First whom they could never bring over to favour their Designs how they Tampered with Arch Bishop Laud with the offers of the greatest Perferments in Rome and finding him inflexible took away his Head for refusing a Cardinals Cap And what rejoycing there was at Rome upon the last Scene of both these Tragedies triumphing that the great Enemies of their Religion were gon is well known and attested by persons of good Quality and Credit who were there in those Times and were both eye and ear Witnesses of it Yea Grâ—â— Relig Sect. 66. we find Mr. Baxter himself strongly suspecting that the Papists had both a Head and a Hand too in the Extirpation of Episcopacy And Mr. Prin and Du Moulin tell us of many known Romanists that were found in the Meetings of divers Sects that sprang up upon the Dissolution of the Government Among the Books and Papers of Thomas Heath were found several against Infant Baptism which gives us a hint of the rise of that Sect and we find some of the Priests confessing how long they were hammering out the Sect of the Quakers How hard they are at work at this time is easily discern'd by wise Men their Expectations daily encrease with our Divisions and they are in great hopes of having a good Harvest from the Tares they have so industriously sowed among us By which you may see Sir whose Tools and Underworkers you are and likwise what Work you are a doing and whose Ends you serve by your groundless and unreasonable Separation And is it not time Sir to consider the Evil and Danger of your ways Will you continue to undermine the Protestant Religion by pulling down the main Prop and Bullwork of it and that by a Device too invented by our Adversaries merely to that purpose For shame Sir Open your Eyes and see from whence you are fallen and repent Thus I have given you the Original of Extempore Prayer and shewed it to be a late Invention brought into these Kingdoms by the Subtilty of Romish Emissaries merely to distract and divide the People If you do not like this Account of the Rise of this Invention you may take another Account of it from a learned Divine who hath trac'd its Original higher and found it to be one of the Wiles and Works of the Devil to undermine and destroy all religious Worship And indeed the natural tendency of this Device to produce this Mischief plainly shews it to have another Spirit for ' its Author than that which is commonly pretended SIR If you have any thing else considerable Dr. Bray Sect. 11. on the Cat. vol. 1. p. 113. that is not answered let me know it and I will spare no pains for your Satisfaction otherwise I shall proceed to what you say of Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins I am SIR Your hearty Friend and Wellwisher M. H. June 17. 1697. LETTER XIX To J. M. SIR HAving shew'd you the Divine Authority and Antiquity of Forms of Prayer together with the Novelty and late rise of your Free Prayer for publick Worship I come now to the Authorities you alledge in favour of the Latter and they are Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins This is the strong Hold to which you always resort and if you are beaten out of this I fear you are a lost Man But before I enter upon it I must needs say First That I am glad to hear that some Bishops can please you Time was when they were look'd upon as the Limbs of Antichrist and were treated accordingly and Bishop Hall found this among the rest but now Thank 's be to God you have other and better Thoughts of them 't is to be hoped Sir you will in time be better reconciled to the Order and read more of their learned Writings But the mischief is unless they write or drop something in Favour of your Faction you have done with them and will neither reverence their Order nor regard their Writings If they speak as you would have them you can afford them now and then a good Word otherwise your Tongues are sharp Arrows and your Words are very Swords 'T is now the Famous and Learned Bishop Hall the Pious and Judicious Bishop Wilkins whilst you think they have struck a Blow on your side but when you find your Mistake 't is to be seared you will serve them as you have done others and let them pass away with plain Dr. Hall and Dr. Wilkins This is to say no worse a very untoward piece of Partiality Again Secondly By your Quoting those two Reverend Fathers it may be hoped you will refer the Matter in debate to the Decision of the Bishops that indeed would soon put an end to the Controversy and I am very willing to put it upon that Issue But I
Prayer could find from the Authority of Bishop Hall I come now to see whether they are like to find any better from the Authority of Bishop Wilkins This is your last Refuge and if this Prop fails your Cause may be in some danger of Sinking What you alledge from him is out of a Book Intitled The Gift of Prayer from which I find you transcribing many passages upon all occasions In that Book the learned Author endeavour'd to reduce Free conceived Prayer into an Art a Design as himself acknowledges that was perfectly new and never attempted by any before him Now that must be acknowledg'd to be a very considerable prejudice to the Undertaking for new Devices and Inventions in Religion have been ever found to be very dangerous and all Churches have felt the Mischief and inconveniences of such Novelties He that walks in a new and untrodden Path may easily lose his Way and many by leaving the Antient Track have found themselves in the Briers Jer. 6.16 and therefore we are bid to Enquire for the old Ways and to walk in them it being much more safe to keep in the beaten Road of Antiquity than to seek out and wander in the By-paths of Innovations But to come to the Book We find that Great man in the Preface wondring that so little should be said or written on that Subject to help him in his Undertaking Now this Wonder may soon cease by calling to mind that all Christian Churches in all times and places perform'd their Publick Worship by Set prescribed Forms and so as there was no use so neither was there any need of this Artificial Gift which is a sufficient Reason of the Silence of Antiquity about it But when this Art began to be studied and put in practice it soon became an Instrument of Division and is at this day one of the principal Wiles and Artifices of Seducers Accordingly therefore this Great man finding the bad Effects of this new Experiment in Divinity and observing how greedily it was catch'd at and abus'd by Sectaries thought fit to abandon this New Art without adding improving or so much as correcting the Imperfections of it and He himself to his dying day became a constant frequenter of the Publick Prayers of the Church and likewise according to the Duty of his Office strictly kept his Clergy to them But the better to clear up this Matter you must consider Sir the Time of the writing of that Book together with the Occasion and End for which 't was written and then you will soon see what little stress is to be laid upon it For the Time of writing it 't was when the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England were by a prevailing Faction laid aside and all godly Forms of Prayer decry'd at which time a whole Deluge of Errors and new Opinions broke in upon us and by the help of Free Prayer were vented and spread abroad to the great increase of Sects and Schisms among us By this means Men lost the Reverence that is due to the Divine Majesty bespeaking him in a loose careless and indecent manner and the Solemnity of Prayer was prostituted to vile and secular purposes Now to remedy those Evils this Great Man wrote this Book to direct Men in this Duty when they were deprived of the Assistance of Forms and to preserve if possible some Sense in their Prayers at a time when there was so little of it to be heard Moreover if we consider the manner and model drawn up by this Reverend Person for this purpose we shall find it in effect to be This. When one sort of Forms were cryed down he endeavoured to bring up another that is when book-Book-Forms were removed by the subtlety of Designing Men p. 11. he endeavoured to set up mental-Mental-Forms or repeating their Prayers by memory which he stiles An invisible Book for the Register of our Thoughts hoping thereby to keep up that sense and seriousness that was requisite in this Duty there being but little difference as he tells us betwixt Repeating by memory and Reading out of a Book That this was the main drift of the Author in that Book appears by these following things First p. 10. He forbid's Men to depend altogether upon sudden Suggestions or Effusions as if it were A Quenching or Confinement of the Spirit to be furnished before-hand with Matter and Expressions for this Service p. 13. In another place he requires them To prepare themselves by study and premeditation for this Duty that is as appears by what is mentioned before to lay up both Matter and Words in their Memory for the more decent and orderly performance of it Again p. 3. 18 he condemns leavning these things to suddain Infusion which occasions Mens bespeaking God Almighty in a loose and careless manner Furthermore he would have them settle and compose their Thoughts or fix these things in their Memory p. 19. for the more solemn performance of this Duty that they may the better avoid all idle impertinent and wild Expressions the usual Embellishments of Extempore-Prayer Secondly p. 17. He condemns all Affectation of varying Words and Phrases in Prayer by which means Men become expos'd to empty vain and unseemly Expressions Now you know Sir that the great difference between Forms and Free Prayer is that in the former the same Words are used upon the same occasions and the latter changes Phrases without any necessity and 't is well known that the chief Excellency of the conceived Prayers of Sectaries lies in this vanity of Variation which this Great Man severely condemns Thirdly He condemns all Affecttaion of Length which you know is one of the great Ornaments and Attendants of Free Prayer p. 17. and to avoid this Prolixity p. 19. he cautions against all empty Repetitions and Digressions letting us know Eccl. 5.2 that God is in Heaven and we are upon Earth therefore our Words should be few Fourthly This Author distinguisheth between Praying in Publick with others p. 16. and Praying Secretly betwixt God and our own Souls allowing Men in secret to take a greater Liberty of enlarging themselves in their own Expressions which though not in themselves so significant and proper may yet suit their Minds and serve to set forth their own immediate Thoughts But in Publick Prayers where we are the Mouth of others and should engage the Affections of those that joyn with us there greater care must be taken that our Expressions be so proper and deliberate as may be most Effectual to that End and for that purpose prefers premeditated Forms wherein Matter and Words are prepared before hasty and present Conceptions In a word this Reverend Author places the great work and business of Prayer p. 2. 3. in the Heart which he stiles the Life and Spirit of it and consequently the Words are but the Carkaess and Shell of it adding withal that 't is not essential to Prayer
that it be either read or rehears'd by Memory p. 10. 11. but that it be delivered with Understanding and suitable Affections with Humility and Confidence and an Inward sense of our Condition and therefore wills Christians not to sit down satisfied with their Book-Prayer but to endeavour to imprint it in their Memory that they may go on to perfection withal narrowly watching their Hearts for fear of that Lip-service and Formality which in such cases Men are more especially expos'd to The plain Sense then of that great Man seems to be this sc When the Publick Liturgy was abolish'd and all Book-Forms were cryed down he labour'd to teach Men to Pray by Memory and to that end willed them to premeditate and to prepare both Matter and Words before-hand not affecting Length or Variations nor leaving so weighty a Duty to sudden and present Conceptions for fear of falling into crude idle and impertinent Expressions And tho' in secret Prayers he allows a greater Latitude yet in Publick he directs them to make use of premeditated Forms to preserve the Solemnity and Reverence of Publick Worship And what wiser Expedient could be thought of in those unhappy Times when all pious prescribed Forms were thrown out of the Church and only the Froth and Vanity of Mens Brains cryed up in their room That this was the Sense of that Learned Author appears by his own practice which is a truer Indication of Mens Minds than Words or Writings for when the Liturgy of the Church was reviv'd and the ancient Order and Uniformity of Publick Worship restor'd he soon laid aside this unpolish'd and by many unpracticable Art and betook himself to the use of the Established Devotion and not only so but advis'd and required all those over whom he had any Power to do the same The present Reverend and Learned Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield who preach'd his Funeral Sermon in the Character he gives of him among other things tells us how he asserted the Liturgy and the Rites of it how he conform'd himself to every thing that was commanded and likewise brought others to Conformity even some eminent Men in his Diocess Yea that he endeavour'd to bring in all that came within his reach and might have had farther success if God had pleased to continue him And now all things consider'd what have you gain'd from the Authority of this Reverend Prelate whom you have so often quoted and insisted upon Does this make for the neglect of Publick Forms of Prayer in quiet and settled Times or the setting up Free Pray-against them where they are duly Established Do not Cases of necessity allow of many things which cannot be so well justified when that Necessity ceases Distingue Tempora was an antient and wise piece of Advice and will help to solve and remove many Difficulties and if you consider the Difference as well as the Badness of the Times for which this artificial Gift of Prayer was Calculated it may well enough excuse if not justify the Attempt But because Maturity of years ripens the Judgment and Length of Days encreaseth Knowledge you may take a better Estimate of Mens Opinions from the Practice of their latter and wiser Age than the Rawness and Rashness of younger Years If Time and Experience hath added any thing to your Knowledge and you begin to see farther into this matter than formerly let me advise you not to withstand the Evidence of Truth but to imitate the Example of this Great Man and let your latter End be like his which is the hearty wish of SIR Your affectionate Friend and Well-wisher M. H. June 1. 1697. FINIS
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