call that reading Prayer is not nay part of Gospel-Worship or true and real Prayer but rather one of the many Inventions and Traditions of Men since the Apostacy If it had been the Will of God that such a way of Worship should have been used in the true Church as a common Liturgy or set Form of Prayers it would have been used in the Apostles days But neither the Apostles nor their immediate Successors either made or used any such set Forms of read Prayers Nothing of ☞ this kind was known in the Church either in Justin Martyr or Tertullian his time who lived above 200 Years after Christ So that it is as clear as the noon-day that when these divine Gists of Praying and Singing by the Spirit were lost P. 54 45. and the holy Spirit himself was in great measure departed from the Invention of reading set Forms of Prayer took place The first Instance that I find of Peoples being put to use a composed or set Form of Prayer made by another was that Form of Prayer which Constantine the Great composed and gave his Soldiers not to read but get by Heart He at this time was but a young Christian and the Purity of spiritual Worship began to decline a-pace even in his days But neither in Constantine's time nor a considerable space thereafter do I find that any made or composed Prayers before-hand were used in the Church ☜ This way of Praying to wit in words by the Spirit P. 56. as he is pleased to give assistance doth alone and only answer to the Liberty of the Spirit which is free even the holy Spirit of Truth and neither will nor can be limited and who seek to limit him he departs from them in so far and remaineth still in his own freedom altho' such who seek to limit the Spirit by using set Forms may and do quench the Spirit as unto themselves The words of these set Forms Whence came they P. 59. Had the Spirit no influence upon the understanding of those Men who conceived them to help and assist them in those Conceptions If they say Nay they will render the set forms of Prayer of small value with the People in that respect But if they say The Spirit did help them to form these Conceptions it may as well be in Men now to conceive other words of Prayer Praying by a set Form not only tends to limit and stint the Spirit and quench it in regard of its Operations P. 60. but also it tendeth to make the Understanding c. altogether barren and unfruitful in respect of Prayer which yet ought to exercise the Understanding as much as any other thing as Paul said I will Pray with the Spirit I will Pray with Understanding also For if the Understanding be limited to a set Form of Words then there is no room nor place nor liberty left for it to bring forth Prayer in any other Forms the which seemeth verily as absurd to me Indeed a word spoken in season P. 71 72. whether it be in Preaching or Praying how sweet and comfortable it is Now these set Forms of Prayer being to be used according to the Calendar such Prayers on such a day and others on other days as the Calendar or order of the Service requireth Can these Forms be always or for most part seasonable to Peoples States and Conditions unless it could be supposed that the inward States and Conditions of Mens Souls and Spirits should regularly vary according to the seasons and days of the Year which were most absurd to ☜ think or imagine Or how do these set Forms of Prayer which tell us daily what to pray for agree with Paul's words Rom. 8.26 The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should Pray for as we ought From their using set Forms of Prayer and Blessing under the Law P. 77. to argue for the use of them under the Gospel will not hold good for not only Sacrifices and Offerings of Beasts but many other things were both commanded and allowed under the Law which are not under the Gospel But we do not find that even under the Law or at any time before P. 79. the Lord did limit or confine his People or Servants to such a precise number of set Forms of Prayer But on the contrary we find that many prayed ex tempore by the Inspiration of the Spirit what the Lord did give them or put into their Mouths of words both in private and publick as Solomon's Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple also Esdras's Prayer chap. 9. and the Levites Prayer Neh. 9. and Daniel's Prayer Dan. 9. c. To an Objection That Christ taught his Disciples to Pray in a set Form of words P. 81 82. he answers Though they were endued at that time with a measure of the Spirit yet it was but small in respect of what was to follow And we must remember that as yet the Dispensation of the Law remained in force 2. Christ did not limit them only to this Form of Prayer nor did he give them a Book of Forms of Prayer P. 83. or any other Forms that we read of but this only which therefore was rather to be a Pattern and Example unto them according to which they were to Pray than to tye or confine them to the precise number of the words of it All true Prayer is a living thing P. 89. and must have a living Form of its own and cannot borrow the Form of another even as a Rose or Tulip or Lilly or any other Flower or Vegetable or Fruit of the Earth as it springs up out of the Ground must have its own proper living Form and Figure Either these set Forms of Prayer are few or many if few they cannot give a large understanding to the People P. 115 See his Sermon Preached at St. George's Buttolph's before noted if many they cannot well be remembred by them And if they were as many as would fill many Volumes they cannot give so great occasion to edifie and inform the Understanding as these Prayers which proceed ex tempore by the Inspiration of the holy Spirit in holy Men which must needs be many more and containing much more matter than the greatest Book of ever so many set Forms of Prayer can What is here said P. 127. all along in this Treatise of Praying by the Spirit helping to conceive the words of Prayer is also to be understood of Singing and Praising God with a Psalm and the Reasons and Arguments drawn from Scripture for the one serve equally for the other for all Singing and Praising with a Psalm or Psalms in Gospel-times was a spiritual Gift as is clear in the Church of Corinth when some had a Psalm to utter or express in words as some had a Doctrine and some a Revelation some an Interpretation 1 Cor. 14.26 10. His Deism My Charity is so large and free in that respect P. 103. that I believe among all People Jews and Turks as well as Christians and many of those called Heathens if they do believe in one onely God and are Faithful to what they know they are at times visited with gentle Breathings of the Spirit of God which helps them truly to Pray unto him with Desires and Affections and true Breathings ☜ of the Soul after him Having thus gone through Ten Heads of his Belief formerly and scarce wedged in an Animadversion I leave my Reader to compare it with what must be his Sentiments now if he really believe as that Church doth of which he is admitted a Member and with his weekly Sermons I only add his fruere mecum vale FINIS
THE PORTRAITVRE OF Mr. George Keith THE QUAKER In Opposition to Mr. George Keith THE PARSON Presented to the Hearers of his late Sermons By a Protestant Dissenter G. K 's Serious Appeal p. 21. Let but the Reader see my own Words in my printed Books and well consider them and if he have but a little Sound Judgment he will easily find I have not contradicted my Self in any thing LONDON Printed and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1700. THE PORTRAITURE OF Mr. George Keith c. THe Exposing this Person I am now concerned with in his proper Colours who yet told the World in his first Narrative p. 15. I know not any Fundamental Principle nor indeed any One Principle of the Christian Faith that I have varied from to this day hath lain hitherto mostly upon the Quakers and a Moderate Church-man and it hath driven him or Money hath tempted him after having made a ricketty Retractation imperfect in almost all the parts of it to give them the greatest Contradiction that a Protestant was capable of doing so obvious is the Disparity between a Teacher among the Quakers and a Minister of the Church of England Nor hath he I Appeal to you Gentlemen whose Curiosity hath led you to be his Hearers of late gone off quiet with the rest of his Dissenting Protestant Brethren nay not his particular Friends but as a Man Fighting pro aris focis and who would Monopolize the Character of Ishmael to himself viz His Hand against every Man and every Man's Hand against him he spares none but proclaims War against them all and I fear not so much to ingratiate himself with his new Masters or to Reform us as to blow up the Coals of Persecution against us all Preached at St. George's Buttolph's in the Afternoon the last Leafe but one not obliquely hinted at in one * of his late printed Sermons This rendring him a common Enemy and Make-bate for if his Malice prevail we are like to be Sufferers in common wonder not gentle Reader if by our joynt Endeavours after Examination and finding him a fickle Proteus we submit our gleanings to his Auditors that they may see him as he is and beware of him Could he give proof he were a Sincere Convert like St Paul who once had Zeal without Knowledge not Knowledge without Zeal God forbid we should do other than pity him and inform him better wherein we differ from him and apprehend him misled But if upon the reading of these the contrary appear my endeavours in detecting him I hope will not be unacceptable to any good Man What I have collected of this kind is much of it New not offered before that I have observed and the method somewhat different The Reader is left to compare what is here cited with what he well knows to be the Doctrine of that Church G. K. is now a Member of or hath heard or read from his late Sermons too well known to contradict his Sentiments here given to need either Comment or Transcribing And whether the Arguments formerly delivered when he went against both Wind and Tide have been even faintly attacked since both have been for him much more whether invalidated or sufficient to set him strait in the Opinion of the Judicious and Consciencious is submitted to such And thus I enter upon my Citations I. Out of G. K's Book entituled Help in time of need c. printed Anno 1665. 1. His Charge against the Presbyterians of Scotland turned upon himself The Title Page begins thus Help in time of need from the God of Help to the People of the so called Church of Scotland especially the once more Zealous and Professing who have so shamefully degenerated and declined from that which their Fathers the Primitive Protestants attained unto yea and from what they have but of late themselves so zealously asserted and maintained to be the Cause and Work of God which now they have generally shrunk from like the Dog returning to the Vomit and the Sow to the Puddle after the being once Washed Were not set Forms of Prayer cryed down also in Scotland as lifeless barren things and the Service Book denied P. 24 25. And now have ye not again licked up the Vomit And have not your Brethren in England taken it up again And when it 's offered to you to read will you not also do the like There is no question of it but most of you will and worse also when ye are put to the tryal Now have ye not Apostatized herein also P. 26. and mixed your selves with the profane Rabble of the World as bad and worse than Papists Turks Pagans which hath provoked the Lord to withdraw from among you and ye can Pray and Sing ☜ and Communicate with such Is not this Babylon indeed Which is to say Confusion And by the by I would ask you one Question P. 28 29. If the Popish Church be a true Church tho' Corrupt why have ye separated from it And how can ye justify your Separation therefrom See his Sermon Preached at St. George's Buttolph's before noted For its another Principle of yours That a Church holding the Fundamentals which make say ye a true Church tho' there be many Corruptions therein is not to be separated from And this Principle ye have taken up to justifie your Compliance with Prelacy and this late Church Model and Frame which ye formerly vomited up and not only quit it ☜ but vowed to God against the same And now it stood somewhat against your Stomachs to receive it among you again till ye fell upon this Pill whereby ye got it digested viz. The Episcopal Party is a true Church and therefore we ought not to separate from them because of their Corruptions and shunning one inconveniency Have ye not fallen upon another far greater and quite given away your Cause into the hands of the Papists Now Judas fell from his Ministry in Selling his Master Christ ibid. which generally your Ministers have done and have they not thereby fallen from their Ministry I know well P. 37. generally they have kept to their God all along very constantly amongst all their Changes being such the Apostle mentions generally whose God is their Belly and this Master they have served and do serve very Faithfully making every Change answer its design It was discovered unto them by the Light ibid. and they discerned Prelacy to be a limb of Antichrist and so called it and but of late days it was Covenanted to God against again and again and did not ye your selves Vow to God against the same So that herein ye have not only Apostatized from your Fathers but from what ye were of late your selves I know not amongst the Thousands of you Ministers or People that vowed to God against that filthy thing set up in the Land P. 38 39. any of you all bear a suitable Testimony by Sufferings
the ungodly Now which of the two ways of Preaching are the best P. 6. to Preach only from a Hear-say by others or from a Sight and Hearing of Christ himself Surely this was the best and therefore this Woman is a better Preacher than all your University-Men and Doctors and Batchelors She learned more of Christ from himself in that small time perhaps not one hour's length than your Doctors and University-Men have yet learned for all their many Years Studying Labouring Reading and Hearing As Christ upbraided the Jews that they had neither heard his Father's Voice nor seen his Shape so it may be said of them yea they say it themselves they have neither heard him nor seen him Alas for such Teachers What should Men hear them for They can tell us no more of him but as they have heard it from Men or read it in the Scripture and all their Knowledge is from the Scripture and all have the Scripture as well as they and so without them by the Scripture may know as much of Christ as they and save both their pains and their Money 7. Of their Maintenance A Father hath three Sons P. 8 9. one of them he thinks may be fit to be made a Lawyer another to be a Doctor of Physick a third and that commonly the greatest Dunce or Dolt of the three finding him not so fit for other things he resolves he will have him a Minister or Preacher that it may be a living to him and so away he sends them all to the Grammar-School and from that to the University and thus one becomes a ☞ Preacher only by that which is Natural and Artificial as the other two become the Lawyer and Physitian here is nothing of God or Christ seen more in the one than in the other Is it not so generally among them They are become Preachers by a Design or Contrivance of their Parents or themselves As soon as they become so old as to have so much natural Wit as to see they must make some shift how to live and looking about the many Trades they readily see it is the far easiest of many or most Trades to be a Preacher to get Money for it is little Labour in Respect of many other Labours and much Gain and also brings Honour for if he had been of never so mean a Degree and of the most abject and mean Parents in all the Country yet to become a Preacher maketh him to be esteemed a Gentleman and be called Sir and perhaps to be advanced to be a Bishop and then he will be called My Lord. But how many either of one sort or another of them whether Episcopal or Presbyterian are to be found who have been called from some other Calling or Occupation they were in before to leave it and go to Preach Christ as this Woman was called from her Water Pot immediately to Preach him in a City of Samaria called Sychar And yet thus were the true Servants of the Lord called who were Mechanick-men and Tradesmen c. She preached Christ freely She said not unto them P. 10. What Money or Hire will you give me and I will Preach Christ unto you Nay nay she was not of such a Mercinary Spirit she was more noble far unlike the Preachers of the Man-made-Ministry in these Days whether Episcopal or Presbyterian as well as Popish where all is done for Money No Money no Preaching as the ☜ old Proverb is No Penny no Pater noster G. K. may speak this now feelingly 8. Of their Doctrine But so do not these Men of the Man-made-Ministry Preach him Nay but the contrary For say they P. 13. That is not Christ which convinceth every Man of his Sins and tells him all that ever he did it is but a Humane Principle not Divine it it is but Natural not Spiritual a Natural Light c. and so deny his Divinity and Divine Power and Godhead Is not this an Error in Fundamentals to deny the Divinity of Christ For so he charged them then I will rather hear this Woman of Samaria than hear them P. 14. She bids Come and see Christ himself they say there is no seeing of him nor hearing of himself so long as we live upon Earth Oh blind and deaf Men who because they have neither heard him nor seen him therefore deny this blessed Privilege Oh that People should follow after them and not see these blind Men Whom have these of the Man-made-Ministry brought this length that they are come unto Christ himself and heard him and seen him Nay both Teachers and People cry out generally This is not to be expected in this Life Query Are these Teachers and People now Reformed or G. K. Deformed The Principles unsound or Turn-coat George become so III. Out of his Book entituled The Fundamental Truths of Christianity briefly hinted at by way of Question and Answer To which is added a Treatise of Prayer in the same Method Printed Anno 1688. Before I proceed excuse me good Reader if I make two Remarks by the way The one is that here we have not a Syllable from him of our blessed Saviour Christ his Birth Sufferings Death Resurrection Ascension and Mediation notwithstanding he pretends to give the Fundamental Truths of Christianity What have these no share in his Fundamental Truths Or were they too trivial be noticed An unpardonable Omission believe me in any but himself enough to have given him a fresh occasion to have ascended his Stage at Turner's-Hall once more were he not now better provided for and I think he ought not to come off cheaper than more patrio standing in a White-Sheet for it The next is That Prayer right Prayer Praying so as to be acceptable with God is a Fundamental Principle of Christianity If he call that good Prayer now which he once asserted to be otherwise two things lye upon him telling us he is otherwise minded now and that he gets his living by being so will not serve viz. First to enervate the Force of those Arguments then delivered which lose not their Validity by his being a Weathercock And 2dly To manifest himself not to have erred in Fundamentals a Brag his late Prints have abounded with 9. Of set Forms of Prayer and Singing of Psalms In his Preface to the Treatise of Prayer he saith Wherefore the Apostle prayed to the Lord that God would establish the true Believers in him in every good word and work 2 Thess 2.17 whence I conclude that good words are as real a Fruit of the Spirit as good works or desires and these good words must not be borrowed words from the Mouths or Lines of others made ready to our hands but must spring from the inward fruitfulness of our Understandings as the Spirit of the Lord doth water them and make them fruitful after an heavenly sort To read set Forms of Prayer but of a Book whether in private or publick P. 43. and