wisdome of those men who in all reason are to be supposed to have received from God all those assistances which are effects of the spirit of Government and therefore it is but weaknesse of spirit or strength of passion impotency in some sense or other certainly that first dislikes the publique provisions and then say they are not wholsome For I demand concerning the publike Lyturgies of a sect. 64 Church whose constitution is principally of the parts and choisest extracts of Scripture Lessons and Psalmes and some few Hymnes and Symbols made by the most excellent persons in the Primitive Church and all this in nothing disagreeing from the rules of Lyturgie given in Scripture but that the same things are desired and the same persons prayed for and to the same end and by the same great instrument of addresse acceptation by Jesus Christ and which gives all the glory that is due to God and gives nothing of this to a Creature and hath in it many admirable documents whether there be any thing wanting in such a Lyturgie towards edification What is there in prayers that can edifie that is not in such in a Lyturgie so constituted Or what can there be more in the private formes of any Minister then is in such a publick composition By this time I suppose the Objection with all its sect. 65 parts is disbanded so farre as it relates to edification profit and compliance with the auditors As for the matter of liberty and restraint of the Spirit I shall consider that apart In the mean time I shall set down those grounds of Religion and Reason upon which publick Lyturgie relies and by the strength of which it is to be justified against all opposition and pretences 1. The Church hath a power given to her by the Spirit sect. 66 of God a command to describe publick forms of Lyturgie For I consider that the Church is a Family Jesus Christ is the Master of the Family the holy Spirit is the great Dispensatour of all such graces the Family needs and are in order to the performance of their Duty the Apostles and their Sucoessors the Rulers of the Church are Stewards of the manifold Graces of God whose office is to provide every mans portion and to dispence the graces and issues Evangelicall by way of Ministery Who is that faithfull and wise Steward whom his Lord shall make ruler of his Houshold It was our blessed Saviours Question and Saint Paul answered it Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God Now the greatest Ministery of the Gospell is by way of prayer most of the graces of the Spirit being obtained by prayer and such offices which operate by way of impetration and benediction and consecration which are but the severall instances of prayer Prayer certainly is the most effectuall and mysterious ministery and therefore since the Holy Ghost hath made the Rulers of the Church Stewards of the mysteries they are by virtue of their Stewardship Presidents of Prayer and publike Offices 2. Which also is certaine because the Priest is to stand sect. 67 between God and the People and to represent all their needs to the throne of grace He is a Prophet and shall pray for thee said God concerning Abraham to Abimelech And therefore the Apostles appointed inferiour Officers in the Church that they might not be hindred in their great worke but we will give our selves to the word of God and to prayer And therefore in our greatest need in our sicknesse and last scene of our lives we are directed to send for the Elders of the Church that they may pray over us and God hath promised to heare them and if prayer be of any concernment towards the finall condition of our souls certainly it is to be ordered guided and disposed by them who watch for our soules {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as they that must give account to God for them 3. Now if the Rulers of the Church are Presidents of sect. 68 the rites of Religion and by consequence of Prayer either they are to order publike prayers or private For private I suppose most men will be so desirous of their liberty as to preserve that in private where they have no concernments but their owne for matter of order or scandall But for publike if there be any such thing as Government and that prayers may be spoiled by disorder or made ineffectuall by confusion or by any accident may become occasion of a scandall it is certaine that they must be ordered as all other things are in which the publike is certainly concerned that is by the Rulers of the Church who are answerable if there be any miscarriage in the publike Thus farre I suppose there will not be much Question with those who allow set formes but would have themselves be the Composers They would have the Ministers pray for the people but the Ministers shall not be prescribed to the Rulers of the Church shal be the Presidents of religious rites but then they will be the Rulers therefore we must proceed farther and because I will not now enter into the Question who are left by Christ to govern his Church I will proceed upon such grounds which I hope may be sufficient to determine this Question and yet decline the other Therefore 4. Since the Spirit of God is the spirit of supplication sect. 69 they to whom the greatest portion of the Spirit is promised are most competent persons to pray for the people and to prescribe formes of prayer But the promise of the Spirit is made to the Church in generall to her in her united capacity to the whole Church first then to particular Churches then in the lowest seat of the Category to single persons And we have title to the promises by being members of the Church and in the Communion of Saints which beside the stylus curiae the form of all the great promises being in generall and comprehensive termes appears in this that when any single person is out of this Communion he hath also no title to the promises which yet he might if he had any upon his own stock not derivative from the Church Now then I infer if any single persons will have us to believe without possibility of proof for so it must be that they pray with the Spirit for how shall they be able to prove the spirit actually to abide in those single persons then much rather must we believe it of the Church which by how much the more generall it is so much the more of the Spirit she is likely to have and then if there be no errors in the matter the Church hath the advantage and probability on her side and if there be an errour in matter in either of them neither of them have the Spirit or they make not the true use of it But the publike Spirit in all
great mercy to that people they had not knowne how to have composed an office for the daily service of the Temple without danger of asking things needlesse vaine or impious such as were the prayers in the Roman Closets that he was a good man that would not owne them Et nihil arcano qui roget ore Deos. Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere dajustum sanctumque videri Noctem peccatis fraudibus objice nubem But when the Holy Ghost came downe in a full breath and a mighty wind he filled the breasts and tongues of men and furnished the first Christians not onely with abilities enough to frame excellent devotions for their present offices but also to become precedents for Liturgy to all ages of the Church the first being imitated by the second and the second by the third till the Church being setled in peace and the records transmitted with greater care and preserved with lesse hazard the Church chose such Formes whose Copies we retaine at this day Now since it was certaine that all ages of the Church sect. 39 would looke upon the first Fathers in Christ and Founders of Churches as precedents and Tutours and Guides in all the parts of their Religion and that prayer with its severall parts and instances is a great portion of the Religion the Sacraments themselves being instruments of grace and effectuall in genere orationis it is very reasonable to think that the Apostolicall men had not onely the first fruits but the elder Brothers share a double portion of the Spirit because they were not onely to serve their owne needs to which a single and an ordinary portion would have been then as now abundantly sufficient but also to serve the necessity of the succession and to instruct the Church for ever after But then that this assistance was an ability to pray ex sect. 40 tempore I find it no where affirmed by sufficient authentick Testimony and if they could have done it it is very likely they would have been wary and restrained in the publike use of it I doubt not but there might then be some sudden necessities of the Church for which the Church being in her infancy had not as yet provided any publike formes concerning which cases I may say as Quintilian of an Oratour in the great and sudden needs of the Common-wealth Quarum si qua non dico cuicunque innocentiam civium sed amicorum ac propinquorum alicui evenerit stabÃtne matus salutarem parentibus vocem statim si non succurratur perituris moras secessum silentium quaeret dum illa verba fabricentur memoriae insidant vox ac latus praeparetur I doe not thinke that they were oratores imparati ad casus but that an ability of praying on a sudden was indulged to them by a specall aide of the Spirit to contest against sudden dangers and the violence of new accidents to which also possibly a new inspiration was but for a very little while necessary even till they understood the mysteries of Christianity and the revelations of the Spirit by proportion and analogy to which they were sufficiently instructed to make their sudden prayers when sudden occasions did require This I speak by way of concession and probability sect. 41 For no man can prove thus much as I am willing relying upon the reasonablenesse of the Conjecture to suppose but that praying with the Spirit in this place is praying without study art or deliberation is not so much as intimated For 1. It is here implyed that they did prepare some of sect. 42 those devotions to which they were helped by the Spirit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} when you come together each of you peradventure hath a Psalme {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not every one makes but when you meet every one hath viz. already which supposes they had it prepared against the meeting For the Spirit could help as well at home in their meditation as in the publike upon a sudden and though it is certaine the Holy Spirit loves to blesse the publike meetings the communion of Saints with speciall benedictions yet I suppose my Adversaries are not willing to acknowledge any thing that should doe much reputation to the Church and the publike authoriz'd conventions at least not to confine the Spirit to such holy and blessed meetings They will I suppose rather grant the words doe probably intimate they came prepared with a Hymne and therefore there is nothing in the nature of the thing but that so also might their other formes of Prayer the assistance of the Spirit which is the thing in Question hinders not but that they also might have made them by premeditation 2. In this place praying with the Spirit signifies no sect. 43 other extraordinary assistance but that the Spirit help'd them to speake their prayer in an unknowne Tongue {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} If I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is without fruit what then I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also Plainly here praying in the Spirit which is opposed to praying in understanding is praying in an unknown tongue where by the way observe that praying with the Spirit even in sense of Scripture is not alwaies most to edification of the people Not alwaies with understanding And when these two are separated Saint Paul preferres five words with understanding before ten thousand in the spirit For this praying with the Spirit was indeed then a gift extraordinary and miraculous like as prophecying with the Spirit and expired with it But while it did last it was the lowest of gifts inter dona linguarum it was but a gift of the tongue and not to the benefit of the Church directly or immediately This also observe in passing by If Saint Paul did so sect. 44 undervalue the praying with the Spirit that he preferred edifying the Church a thousand degrees beyond it I suppose he would have been of the same mind if the Question had between praying with the Spirit and obeying our Superiours as he was when it was between praying with the Spirit and edification of the Church because if I be not mistaken it is matter of great concernment towards the edification of the Church to obey our Superiours not to innovate in publike formes of worship especially with the scandall and offence of very wise and learned men and to the disgrace of the dead Martyrs who sealed our Liturgy with their bloud But to returne In this place praying with the Spirit sect. 45 beside the assistance given by the Holy Ghost to speake in a strange tongue is no more then my spirit praying that is it implies my co-operation with the assistance of the Spirit of God insomuch that the whole action may truly be denominated mine and is called of the Spirit onely
reason is to be trusted before the private when there is a contestation the Church being prior potior in promissis she hath a greater and priour title to the Spirit And why the Church hath not the spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her Children I desire once for all to be satisfied upon true grounds either of reason or revelation And if she have whether she have not as much as any single person If she have but as much then there is as much reason in respect of the divine assistance that the Church should make the forms as that any single Minister should and more reason in respect of order and publike influence and care and charge of soules but if she have a greater portion of the Spirit than a single person that is if the whole be greater then the part or the publike better than the private then it is evident that the spirit of the Church in respect of the divine assistance is chiefly and in respect of order is onely to be relied upon for publike provisions and formes of prayer But now if the Church in her united capacity makes sect. 70 prayers for the people they cannot be supposed to be other than limited and determined formes for it is not practicable or indeed imaginable that a Synod of Church Governours be they who they will so they be of Christs appointment should meet in every Church and pray as every man list their Counsels are united and their results are Conclusions and finall determinations which like generall propositions are applicable to particular instances so that 1 since the Spirit being the great Dictatour of holy prayers and 2 the Spirit is promised to the Church in her united capacity and 3 in proportion to the Assembly caeteris paribus so are measures of the Spirit powred out and 4 when the Church is assembled the Prayers which they teach the People are limited and prescribed formes it followes that limited and prescribed formes are in all reason emanations from the greatest portion of the Spirit warranted by speciall promises which are made to every man there present that does his duty as a private member of the Christian Church and are due to him as a Ruler of the Church and yet more especially and in a further degree to all them met together where if ever the holy Spirit gives such helps and graces which relate to the publike government and have influence upon the communities of Christians that is will blesse their meeting and give them such assistances as will enable them to do the work for which they convene But yet if any man shall say What need the Church sect. 71 meet in publike Synods to make formes of Prayer when private Ministers are able to doe it in their severall Parishes I answer it is true many can but they cannot doe it better then a Councell and I think no man is so impudent as to say he can doe it so well however quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet the matter is of publike concernment and therefore should be of publike consultation the advantages of publikely describ'd formes I shall afterwards specifie In the mean time 5. As the Church I mean the Rulers of the Church sect. 72 are appointed Presidents of religious rites and as the Rulers in conjunction are enabled to doe it best by the advantages of speciall promises and double portions of the Spirit so she alwayes did practise this either in conjunction or by single dictate by publick persons or united authority but in all times as necessity required they prescribed set Formes of Prayer If I should descend to minutes and particulars I sect. 37 could instance in the behalf of set Formes that 1. God prescribed to Moses a set Forme of Prayer and benediction to be used when he did blesse the people 2. That Moses composed a Song or Hymne for the children of Israel to use to all their generations 3. That David composed many for the service of the Tabernacle and every company of singers was tyed to certain Psalmes as the very titles intimate and the Psalmes were such limited and determinate prescriptions that in some Gods Spirit did bind them to the very number of the Letters and order of the Alphabet 4. That Solomon and the holy Kings of Judah brought them in and continued them in the ministration of the Temple 5. That in the reformation by Hezekiah the Priests and Levites were commanded to praise the Lord in the words of David Asaph 6. That all Scripture is written for our learning and since all these and many more set Formes of Prayer are left there upon record it is more then probable that they were left there for our use and devotion and certainly it is as lawfull and as prudent to pray Scriptures as to read Scriptures and it were well if we would use our selves to the expression of Scripture and that the language of God were familiar to us that we spake the words of Canaan not the speech of Ashdod and time was when it was thought the greatest Ornament of a spirituall Person and instrument of a religious Conversation but then the consequents would be that these Prayers were the best Formes which were in the words of Scripture and those Psalmes and Prayers there recorded were the best devotions but these are set Formes 7. To this purpose I could instance in the example of Saint John Baptist who taught his Disciples a Forme of Prayer And that Christs Disciples begged the same favour and it was granted as they desired it And here I mean to fix a little for this ground cannot sect. 74 fail us I say Christ prescribed a set Form of Prayer to be used by all his Disciples as a Breviary of Prayer as a rule of their devotions as a repository of their needes and as a direct addresse to God For in this Prayer God did not onely command us to make our Prayers as Moses was bid to make the Tabernacle after the patterne which God shewed him in the Mount and * Christ shewed his Apostles but he hath given us the very tables written with his own hand that we should use them as they are so delivered this Prayer was not onely a precedent and pattern but an instance of addresse a perfect forme for our practice as well as imitation For 1. When Christ was upon the Mount he gave it for sect. 75 a patterne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} So pray ye or after this manner which if we expound onely to the sense of becomming a pattern or a Directory it is observable that it is not onely Directory for the matter but for the manner too and if we must pray with that matter and in that manner what does that differ from praying with that forme however it is well enough that it becomes a precedent to us in any sense and the Church may vary her
devotion and takes off the contempt which from the no-authority of single and private persons must be consequent to their conceived prayers and the publike practise of it and union of Spirits in the devotion satisfies the world in the nature of it and the Religion of the Church 12. But nothing can answer for the great scandall sect. 113 which all wise persons and all good persons in the world must needs receive when there is no publike testimony consigned that such a whole Nation or a Church hath anything that can be called Religion and those little umbrages that are are casuall as chance it self alterable as time and shall be good when those infinite numbers of men that are trusted with it shall please to be honest or shall have the good luck not to be mistaken 13. I will not now instance in the vain-glory that is appendant sect. 114 to these new made every-dayes forms of prayer and that some have been so vaine like the Orators Quintilian speaks of ut verbum petant quo incipiant that they have published their ex tempore faculty upon experiment and scenicall bravery you shall name the instance and they shall compose the forme Amongst whom also the gift of the man is more then the devotion of the man nor will I consider that then his gift is esteemed best when his prayer is longest and if he takes a complacency in his gift as who is not apt to doe it he will be sure to extend his prayer till a suspitious and scrupulous man would be apt to say his Prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees who thought to be heard for their much babling I know it was observed by a very wise man that the vanity of spirit and popular opinion that growes great and talks loudly of his abilities that can speake ex tempore may not onely be the incentive but a helper of the faculty and make a man not onely to love it but to be the more able to doe it Addit ad dicendum etiam pudor stimulos addit dicendorum expectata laus mirumque videri potest quod cum stylus secreto gaudeat atque omnes arbitros reformidet extemporalis actio auditorum frequentiâ ut miles congestu signorum excitatur Namque difficiliorem concitationem exprimit expolit dicendi necessitas secundos impetus auget placendi cupido Adeò praemium omnia spectant omnia eloquentia quoque quanquam plurimum habeat in se voluptatis maximè tamen praesenti fructu laudis opinionisque ducatur It may so happen that the opinion of the people as it is apt to actuate the faculty so also may encourage the practise and spoile the devotion But these things are accidentall to the nature of the thing and therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person yet I will not be too severe but preserve my self on the surer side of a charitable construction which truly I desire to keep not onely to their persons whom I much reverence but also to their actions But yet I durst not doe the same thing even for these last reasons though I had no other In the next place we must consider the next great objection sect. 115 that is with much clamour pretended viz. that in set Formes of Prayer we restrain and confine the blessed Spirit and in conceived Formes when every man is left to his liberty then the Spirit is free unlimited and unconstrained I answer either their conceived formes I use their own sect. 116 words though indeed the expression is very inartificiall are premeditate and described or they are ex tempore If they be premeditate and described then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived Formes as in the Churches conceived Formes For as to this particular it is all one who describes and limits the Forme whether the Church or a single man does it still the Spirit is in constraint and limit So that in this case they are not angry at set Forms of Prayer but that they do not make them And if it be replied that if a single person composes a set Forme he may alter it if he please and so his Spirit is at liberty I answer so may the Church if She see cause for it and unlesse there be cause the single person will not alter it unlesse he do things unreasonable and without cause So that it will be an unequall challenge and a peevish quarrell to allow of set Formes Prayer made by private Persons and not of set Formes made by the publick Spirit of the Church It is evident that the Spirt is limited in both alike But if by conceived Formes in this Objection they sect. 117 mean ex tempore Prayers for so they would be thought most generally to practise it and that in the use of these the liberty of the Spirit is best preserved To this I answer that the being ex tempore or premeditate will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the Spirit For there may be great liberty in set Formes even when there is much variety and there may be great restraint in extempore prayers even then when it shall be called unlawfull to use set formes That the Spirit is restrained or that it is free in either is accidentall to them both for it may be either free or not free in both as it may happen But the restraint is this that every one is not left to sect. 118 his liberty to pray how he list with premeditation or without it makes not much matter but that he is prescribed unto by the spirit of another But if it be a fault thus to restrain the Spirit I would faine know is not the Spirit restrained when the whole Congregation shall be confined to the Forme of this one mans composing Or shall it be unlawfull or at least a disgrace and disparagement to use any set Formes especially of the Churches composition More plainly thus 2. Doth not the Minister confine and restrain the sect. 119 Spirit of the Lords People when they are tyed to his Forme It would sound of more liberty to their Spirits that every one might make a prayer of his own and all pray together and not be forced or confined to the Ministers single dictate and private Spirit It is true it would breed confusions and therefore they might pray silently till the Sermon began and not for the avoiding one inconvenience run into a greater and to avoid the disorder of a popular noise restrain the blessed Spirit for even in this case as well as in the other Where the Spirit of God is there must be liberty 3. If the spirit must be at liberty who shall assure us sect. 120 this liberty must be in Formes of Prayer And if so whether also it must be in publick Prayer and will it not suffice that it be in private And if in publick Prayers is not the
Church who are to answer for their souls should judge for them before they say Amen which judgement cannot be without set Formes of Lyturgie My sentence therefore is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} let us be as we are already few changes are for the better For if it be pretended that in the Lyturgie of the sect. 136 Church of England which was composed with much art and judgement by a Church that hath as much reason to be confident She hath the Spirit and Gifts of Prayer as any single person hath and each learned man that was at its first composition can as much prove that he had the Spirit as the Objectors now adayes and he that boasts most certainly hath the least If I say it be pretended that there are many errours and inconveniences both in the Order and in the matter of the Common-prayer-Book made by such men with so much industry how much more and with how much greater reason may we all dread the inconveniences and disorders of ex tempore and conceived Prayers Where respectively there is neither conjunction of Heads nor Premeditation nor Industry nor Method nor Art nor any of those Things or at least not in the same Degree which were likely to have exempted the Cōmon-prayer-booke from errours and disorders If these things be in the green tree what will be done in the dry But if it be said the ex tempore and conceived Prayers sect. 137 wil be secured from error by the Directory because that chalkes them out the matter I answer it is not sufficient because if when men study both the matter and the words too they may be and it is pretended are actually deceived much more may they when the matter is left much more at liberty and the words under no restraint at all And no man can avoid the pressure and the weight of this unlesse the Compilers of the Directory were infallible and that all their followers are so too of the certainty of which I am not yet fully satisfied And after this I would faine know what benefit sect. 138 and advantages the Churches of England in her united capacity receives by this new device For the publique it is cleare that whether the Ministers Pray before they Study or Study before they Pray there must needs be infinite difformity in the publique Worship and all the benefits which before were the consequents of Conformity and Unity will be lost and if they be not valuable I leave it to all them to consider who know the inconveniences of Publick disunion and the Publick disunion that is certainly consequent to them who doe not communicate in any common Formes of Worship And to think that the Directory will bring Conformity is as if one should say that all who are under the same Hemisphere are joyned in communi patriâ and will love like Country-men For under the Directory there will be as different religions and as different desires and as differing formes as there are severall varieties of Men and Manners under the one half of Heaven who yet breathe under the same half of the Globe But I ask again what benefit can the publick receive sect. 139 by this Forme or this no Forme For I know not whether to call it Shall the matter of Prayers be better in all Churches shall God be better served shal the Word of God and the best Patternes of Prayers be alwayes exactly followed It is well if it be But there is no security given us by the Directory for the particulars and speciall instances of the matter are left at every Mans dispose for all that and we must depend upon the honesty of every particular for it and if any man proves an Heretick or a Knave then he may introduce what impiety he please into the publick Formes of Gods Worship and there is no Law made to prevent it and it must be cured afterward if it can but before hand it is not prevented at all by the Directory which trusts every man But I observe that all the benefit which is pretended sect. 140 is that it will make an able Ministry Maximus vero studiorum fructus est praemium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris ex tempore dicendi facultas said an exccellent person And it is very true to be able to speak excellent things without long considering is an effect of a long industry and greatest learning but certainly the greatest enemy in the world to its production Much learning and long use of speaking may enable a man to speak upon sudden occasions but speaking without consideration will never make much learning Nec quisquam tantum fidit ingenio ut sibi speret incipienti statim posse contingere sed sicut in cogitatione praecepimus ita facilitatem quoquè extemporalem a parvis initiis paulatim perducemus ad summam And to offer that as a meanes of getting learning which cannot be done at all as it ought but after learning is already gotten in a very great degree is highest mistaking I confesse I am very much from believing the allegation and so will every man be that considers what kinde of men they are that have bin most zealous for that way of conceived Prayer I am sure that very few of the learnedst very many ignorants most those who have made least abode in the Schooles of the Prophets And that I may disgrace no mans person we see Trades-men of the most illiberable arts and women pretend to it and doe it with as many words and that 's the maine thing with as much confidence and speciousnesse of spirit as the best among them Sed nec tumultuarii nec fortuiti sermonis contextum mirabor unquam quem jurgantibus etiam mulierculis superfluere video said Quintilian And it is but a small portion of learning that will serve a man to make conceived Formes of Prayer which they may have easily upon the stock of other men or upon their own fancy or upon any thing in which no learning is required He that knows not this knowes nothing of the craft that may be in the Preachers trade But what Is God better served I would fain see any authority or any reason or any probability for that I am sure ignorant men offer him none of the best sacrifices ex tempore and learned men will be sure to deliberate and know God is then better served when he is served by a publick then when by a private Spirit I cannot imagine what accruements will hence come to the Publick it may be some advantages may be to the private interests of men For there are a sort of men whom our Blessed Saviour noted Who doe devour Widowes houses and for a pretence make long prayers They make Prayers and they make them long by this meanes they receive double advantages for they get reputation to their ability and to their piety And although the Common-prayer-Book in the Preface