Child and hath twins in her Womb that is hard for to make her miscarry in the one but she will miscarry also in the other and he that seeks to kill one of the Twins in the Mothers Belly shall be in hazard to kill the other also But why should the one be killed or choaked more than the other Or why should the Divine Begettings of Gods Holy Spirit in the Understanding of the Soul as also in its Reason and Imagination be strangled more than these in the Will and Affections feeing they have both one Father which is God as they have one Mother which is the Soul. And also seeing what is begot by the Spirit of the Lord in the Will and Desires or Affections of the Soul hath a great dependency what is begot by the same Spirit in the Understanding and Reason For the Children and Servants of God they love him as reasonable Creatures and on reasonable accounts and for reasonable causes yea they have the best and greatest reasons for to love him and those reasons are presented to the Soul by the Holy Spirit in the Understanding and reasonable Faculty And it is generally acknowledged that the Will and Affections do commonly follow the dictates and suggestions of the Understanding and according as the Thoughts of the Understanding whether good or bad do most prevail in the Soul the Will and Affections with the Desires thereof do imbrace what is presented whether it be a true and real good or only seeming and apparent So that the Wills and Affections of all Men are swayed by the strongest Dictates which raise and spring up from their Understanding and intellectual Faculties whether true or false And thus either Wisdom or Folly ruleth the Wills of all Men with their Desires and Affections and consequently all their Actions All good Men are led by wise and good Counsels which the Holy Spirit begets in them and all bad and evil men are led by foolish and evil Counsels And hence it is that every good man is a wise man and every wise man who is truly so is a good man and every bad or evil man is a fool and is called so in Scripture and all sin and wickedness is folly and the real effect and fruit of it Seeing therefore all good inclinations motions and Affections in the will of Man Rise from good and wise Counsels in the Understanding and Reason of Man we must needs say that the Holy Spirit doth operate in both Understanding and Will and begets those good and wise Meditations and Conceptions of Truth in order of Nature before the good Inclinations and Affections which afterwards he begetteth and causeth to arise in the Will. But these good and wise Meditations and Counsels cannot be without words at least inwardly spoke or conceived in the Reason or rational Understanding of Man. And therefore the Spirit of God doth no less help and assist the Understanding or Reason of Man to conceive good Words then it doth help the Will to conceive good Desires and Affections It is therefore a great mistake and error of judgment in those who think that the Spirit of God doth only excite or beget in his Children good Desires and Affections but doth not suggest unto them or help them to conceive good words of Meditation and that as well to pray and give thanks as to preach And seeing Preachers are not stinted to set Forms of words in Preaching why should they be any more stinted to set forms in Praying I cannot understand for the Spirit of God is as near and ready to assist in the one as in the other And if it be said that men Preach not ex tempore but by study and long premeditation and therefore they are in less danger to utter or express unsound and impertinent words in their deliberate and long premeditated Sermons than in their extemporary Prayers To this I Answer 1. It is found by frequent experience that even in those long studied and premeditated Sermons many men have uttered very impertinent and unsound yea false and hurtful words and expressions for it is not much or long time to study or premeditate a Discourse that maketh it good or soundp seeing they who err in their understandings and have received or drunk in wrong and false Doctrines and Principles of Religion and wrong and false Traditional Glosses and Interpretations of Scripture may Preach very unsound and erronious Sermons altho they have taken a long time to study and prepare them 2. According to the former Reply If men shall study before-hand their Prayers as well as their Sermons then they are in no greater danger to speak impertinent and unsound words in Prayer than in Preaching but rather they are less obnoxious to such a danger because in Prayer men commonly do not meddle with matters of controversie or disputable points of Doctrine as indeed it is not proper 3. He who preacheth or prayeth by the true and real assistance of the Holy Spirit as he keepeth faithfully and carefully unto the same altho what he doth either Preach or Pray proceedeth from premeditation It being impossible that the mouth can utter any thing but the heart or mind of man must first conceive it which is a true and real kind of premeditation yet he need eth not any long time for the said premeditation For when his heart and Soul is once well prepared and fitted to be the instrument of the Spirit whether in Preaching or Pray ing c. The which preparation of the Heart at times may require a considerable season longer or shorter as the man is more or less grown up in Vertue and Holiness i◠the least space of time imaginable as in moment or instant when it pleaseth the Lord to assist the understanding by the Divine influences of his Spirit it can be and 〈◊〉 is made fruitful to bring forth and conceive as many solid and living Meditations 〈◊〉 Truth as may sufficiently yield matter 〈◊〉 discourse in true and sound and living words for divers hours But if the Spirit should not suggest so much matter of discourse in so short a space as a moment or instant but only as much as to furnish the Speaker with two or three Sentences or perhaps but one Sentence at first before that one Sentence be well spoke further matter may and doth oft arise from openings of life in the understanding of the Speaker to speak more and so continually still new matter may be and oft is afforded to continue his speech longer or shorter as it pleaseth the Lord to require or as in the wisdom of God a service is seen or felt And indeed various and manifold as well as wonderful are the waies of the Lord towards his Servants whose mouthes he doth open either in Preaching or Praying in the Assemblies of his People For sometimes as one waiteth upon the Lord in pure silence and in holy fear and reverence his heart at the present time being
as a natural Tree bringeth forth its natural Fruit from a principle of activity in its own Nature as it is assisted and helped by the influences of the Heavens and especially the heat and warmth of the Sun and the Heavenly Dews and Rains. And certainly the Prayers of the Prophets and other Holy Men and Women recorded in the Scripture were of this sort God moved and wrought upon their Souls and the powers and faculties thereof from the highest to the lowest and caused them all to concur and made them fruitful to bring forth Holy Prayers and Praises unto God And thus was it also with them in respect of their Preaching and Writing the Holy Scriptures in doing of which they were not bare passive Instruments but partly active and partly passive for most part at least as is demonstrable from the variety of stile and different manner of expression used by the Writers and Pen-men of the Holy Scripture the Holy Spirit acting upon them according to the diversity of their natural as well as spiritual Capacities and gifts whether natural or acquired wherewith they were endued So that as the Fruits of the Earth with their beautiful forms and shapes and diversity of Colours proceed not from the Earth alone nor from the Sun and Heavens alone but from both acting partly together and as the Child which the Mother brings forth in the comely and beautiful linements and proportion of its form is not the Mothers Child alone but the Fathers also So all true Preaching and Praying which proceeds from the Spirit of God and also true and right Meditation and Thanksgiving or any other true spiritual and acceptable Performances is a Birth of two Parents whereof the Faithful Soul is the Mother and God by the working of his Spirit is the Father And therefore it is that all Faithful Souls in Scripture are called the Spouse of the Lord and the Church is called Christ's Wife because as the Wife bringeth forth true and lawful Children to her Husband lawfully begot of him so the Faithful Soul brings forth as it were Spiritual Children unto God and Christ whose Father God is by the working of his Holy Spirit And these Spiritual Children are good Words and Works which the Soul brings forth unto God by the help of his Holy Spirit And therefore all such Preaching and Praying and Thanksgiving which proceed not from the Spirit of God in its inward workings upon the Soul And also all kind of Meditation or any other performance or work that is offered up unto God without the said inward working of the Holy Spirit is but a spurious and bastard-brood and cannot therefore be received and accepted of the Lord who only accepteth what is of his own begetting in the Soul. For what man will accept of a Bastard as if it were his own Child Now in this doth appear both the Wisdom and Love of God that he hath made the Soul an active as well as passive Instrument to joyn and co-operate with him in his work and service and in all what he requires of it And that there are none of the powers or abilities of the Soul or Faculties of it from the lowest to the highest but they may be actively imployed in some part of his service as the Imagination the Memory the Reason and Understanding of Man and its institutive Faculty which being opened and made alive in man through the Work of Regeneration can see and behold God as he doth reveal and discover himself to his Children many times without all words so much as inwardly conceived or remembred though all times it pleaseth God to make use of Words and through them as through the Lattess to show himself unto the Soul as also God maketh use of the Will Love and Affections of his People in the day of his power making them a willing People giving them not only to think and understand what his good and acceptable and holy will is but also to will and to do it For thus the Faculties and Abilities of the Soul which God hath given it are most nobly and excellently exercised when they are exercised in his service immediately and attain to their noblest and best end and herein is the Wisdom and Love of God also manifest that the Soul being thus made active with all its powers abilities and faculties in the works and service of God as co-works with him the Soul it self is the more delighted and hath the more joy and pleasure in those works when it reflecteth on them and considereth them as having a share in them as the Mother hath in the Children whom she hath conceived and brought forth for as it is natural to all Mothers to love their own Children whom they have conceived and born and suffered for so is it also natural to the Soul to love its works which it hath wrought in God and take delight or pleasure in them as God doth in his and as the Mother loveth her own Children whom she hath conceived and born and travelled in great pangs to bring forth into the World more than she loveth any other Children whom she hath not born although these other may be more beautified so the Soul loveth and delighteth most in those works which it bringeth forth as the fruit of its Womb through the assistance of God's Holy Spirit and it is well allowed of the Lord so to do provided it be with due moderation for this is a part of our own reward even to rejoyce in good works which the Lord hath enabled us to perform but the praise is wholly and alone to be given unto the Lord for them all for he it is who hath given to the Soul its being and powers and every ability both Natural and Spiritual so as without him it could not do any thing that is good neither Spiritual nor Natural They are therefore greatly mistaken who think as some foolishly and idly have done and Printed it against us that because we plead for the Spirits Immediate Revelation and Teaching and Immediate assistance to help us in attaining the true knowledg of God in right and true Meditations Preachings Prayers Thanksgivings c. That therefore we lay aside not only the use of the Scripture and other outward means and helps but also the whole use of our Reason and Understanding as men and of any other faculties and abilities of our Souls and become as so many dead and unactive Truncks Stocks or Stones or as if we did judg that the Divine Revelations Inspirations and Motions of God's Holy Spirit helping us to know and understand Divine things to Meditate to Preach and Pray and give Thanks c. did pass through us as a Sound passeth through a hollow Cave or as Water through a bare Conduit These and such like absurd consequences are but the idle and foolish dreams of mens vain imaginations who as it too much appeareth have never had any experience of or acquaintance with the
that might be contrary to the Doctrine then received And to say the truth it is altogether unfitting that men should use extemporary words of Prayer who do not know the leading and assistance of God's Holy Spirit to direct them in the words and matter they utter for it cannot be expected but that frequently they will speak amiss and deviate or wander into impertinent expressions or words contrary to Truth whose Hearts and Tongues are not guided by the Spirit of Truth even as a Ship if she be let loose to Sail without a Pilot or one to rule the Helm cannot but go astray and of two I have alwaies judged it the least inconvenience since God gave me a right understanding what Prayer is rather to use a Set Form of sound words than to allow or permit men without a reproof to presume to speak words of Prayer unto God of their own extemporary conceiving without the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit and who do not so much as pretend unto it as many do not As for those who are against the using of Set Forms of Prayer upon a pretence of Praying by the help of the Spirit and yet plainly deny and vigorously oppose all Immediate Inspiration and Revelation since the Apostles daies I cannot see how they can clear or rid themselves of a contradiction and of being guilty of an horrid Impostor and Cheat for when they argue with such as are for Set Forms of Prayer they seem to be altogether for Praying by the Spirit and make it the main Argument against Set Forms of Prayer that they quench and limit the Spirit but when they argue with these who are indeed for Praying by the Spirit and who do affirm that the Spirit of God is to be kept unto in Prayer and not to be limitted neither as to a Set Form of words formerly made and composed by others nor as to a set time when man or men please to begin or end nor as to the persons who may or do Pray in Assemblies Here these are as great limiters of the Spirit as any for they can and do Pray when they will and how long they will begin and end when they will which doth evince that they have not a regard to the Spirits time and season of moving them to Pray otherwise they would silently wait for it seeing few if any upon Earth are so replenished with the Spirit as to be ready upon all occasions and at all times to Pray vocally or in words by the Spirit as the Mouth of the Assembly of the People unto God and to be sure as no Prophecy came of Old in the will of man so no motion of the Spirit cometh now in the will of men and men cannot use the Spirit or its help either to Preach or Pray as they use a natural habit of Writing or Singing or Playing upon a Musical Instrument which habits they can use at any time according to their natural will and pleasure because they have the command over them and are as it were Masters of those natural habits and Arts. But it were the highest presumption for any man to think that he hath the command of the Spirit to use it when and where and how he pleaseth For the best of men are and ought to be the servants or Ministers of the Spirit as Paul and the other Apostles were and therefore the Spirit did command lead and order them in all their Services and so it did all other true and faithful Ministers who were therefore to attend unto it and wait the seasons of the Spirits movings as those who at the Pool waited for the stirring of the waters by the Angel and therefore true Christians and Ministers are bid Watch unto Prayer And said Christ unto the Apostles Wait for the Promise of the Father which ye have heard of me Acts 1. 4. Again If those men were for the true liberty of Praving by the Spirit they would suffer yea not only suffer but encourage any other in the Congregation to Pray vocally or in words by the Spirit as well as they according to the practise of the ancient and primitive Church when the gift of Praying and Singing by the Inspiration of the Spirit did remain but no such thing is permitted by these Men who will suffer none but themselves and such as they give power unto to use vocal Prayer in their Assemblies as if these Men because forsooth they are Masters of a few Natural Arts or at least called so were Masters of the Spirit and that holy and blessed Spirit of Truth must speak in none but whom they please and give leave unto yea the Holy Spirit of God must be silent in his Children and Servants at their will and command These and many other instances which could be given do evince that these men though they pretend to pray by the Spirit are as great strangers unto it for most part and unto true praying by the Spirit as they who have no such pretence and they who have no such pretence as to pray by the Spirit in respect of conceiving and uttering the words of Prayer are an hundred fold more ingenious and more commendable on that account for their plainness and ingenuity who as they have not that Divine Gift of Praying in words by the Spirit so do not pretend unto it but simply and plainly speak it out that they have it not which is a great deal more honestly done than those do who have it not and yet pretend to it and that pretence deceives simple People as if their Prayers were by the Spirit because they conceive them ex tempore though the raw indigested matter of their Prayers and unsound expressions as they often use as well as the great deadness and want of life that doth accompany their Prayers for the most part sufficiently demonstrate they are not from the Spirit of God. But that which adds to the cheat and imposture to make it the greater is that some yea many or them have got an Art by affected Eloquence or some new invented Phrases followed with a mighty seeming Zeal and Fervency of Spirit to play upon the Peoples Natural Affections and Passions and excite them at their pleasure which the ignorant People for want of a Spiritual Discerning do imagine to be the real work and effect of Gods Holy Spirit when for most part it is nothing else but the animal and natural Passions in the Hearers excited either by Art in the Speakers or at least by the same or like Passions in them who speak both in their Preachings and Prayings for like stirreth up and begetteth its like according to that of the Poet Si vis me flere dolendum est primum ipsitibi i. e. If thou wilt have me weep thou must first weep thy self before me And though I am far from condemning any true tenderness and contrition of Heart or inward meltings of the Soul which are caused by the real
of Gods help and assistance may and do at times refresh the Souls of True Christians and may and do excite or stir up true and living breathings and hearty Desires and Supplications in them with Thanksgivings unto God at Seasons But then it is so when the Reading or Hearing those words of Prayer are put in their true and right place and accounted and valued to be what they are indeed and not another thing which is to say when hearing or reading those words of Prayer are accounted hearing and reading as they are and not Prayer which they are not for hearing and reading are things differing in Nature and Kind from Praying and ought not to be confounded with the same and the greatest service and advantage that reading or hearing words of Prayer read by another unto us have or indeed can have is but Preparatory to excite or stir up unto Prayer and then only can they do so much but as the Spirit of the Lord is pleased to concur and give his assistance with them But if People confound these so differing things and set up the bare reading or hearing what is read in the place or room of true Prayer as if they were true Prayer it self they may provoke the Lord to with-draw that concurrance and assistance of his Spirit from reading and hearing those words however so good yea tho Scripture words and altogether blast and make ineffectual and unprofitable those exercises which otherwise and in themselves considered are lawful and profitable For the Lord who is a God of order he will not have the nature of things confounded but keeped distinct He will not have a thing judged or esteemed to be what it is not or above what it is the tendency of which in this very case is down-right Superstition and Idolatry as to judg that to be Prayer and Divine Worship which is no such thing for whatever is not true Prayer and Divine Worship and yet is called so and really so judged and esteemed is false and a sort of Idolatry For I know no midst betwixt true Divine Worship and Idolatry under that head of Worship seeing all pretended Divine Worship is either true or false and if false it is a sort or kind of Idolatry Now it deserves to be well examined and considered whether the putting reading and hearing read set Forms of Prayer either in publick or private in so high a place as many put them if not most or all who use them hath not provoked the Lord to deny that concurrence and assistance of his Spirit unto those exercises which otherwise he might and would give especially when those read Prayers do altogether exclude those real Prayers which come from the Spirit of God as he enables the Speakers to conceive and bring them forth in words without any set Form. And why is it that many sensible and tender Souls feel no Vertue in many or most of those read Prayers and on the contrary feel great deadness and heavyness and great weights and burdens in hearing them which hath occasioned many to with draw and seek where to find a People where true and living Prayer and Praises are to be found which effectually reach to the Soul and carry their Souls and Hearts along to join with them For neither is it true Prayer to hear the words of him that prayeth most effectually by the Spirit of God but where the Heart and Soul joineth and goeth along by the moving of the same Spirit both in Speaker and Hearers that is true Prayer Again if People should not so far mis-place those things as to judg reading and hearing read Prayers to be Prayers or any part of Divine Worship yet if they lean too much on them and rely more upon them than they should and have more an eye and regard unto them than unto the Spirit of God this also will make their reading and hearing or any other exercise ineffectual unto them and altogether unprofitable But Secoudly I shall neither be so hard nor uncharitable but am very far from it as to judg that all they who hear or read set Forms of Prayer in private and publick and seldom or never use Extemporary Prayer by the help of the Spirit giving them to conceive or express words of Prayer are altogether void of true Devotion and never Pray by the Spirit For my Charity is so large and free in that respect 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 only 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 It is one thing what the Lord doth by high and soveraign acts of his wonderful Mercy and Condescendence to the Children of Men and another what he doth to them upon terms of their doing what he only requires of them and is pleased with in them 5. It is Objected If the Spirit of God doth dictate unto any Men in our days the words of their Prayers in that case those words would be as good Canonical Scripture as any of the Prayers of David or of other Holy men and their Psalms recorded in Scripture which were absurd to affirm Answ. These words of Prayer which come truly from the Spirit of God helping and assisting the Speakers to conceive and express them are no doubt real Divine Testimonies of God's Spirit Light and Life according to their measure but to compare or equal them to Scripture as we do not so to infer it is unequal For if all the Divine Testimonies which originally did livingly and purely proceed and spring from the Spirit of God hadbeen writ and aded to the Scripture the bulk or volumn of it had been too great yea many Volumns would not have contained them and it had been impossible for men to have read them all Therefore God hath Wisely and Graciously ordered it by his Divine Providence that a part of these many Testimonies which have come from his Spirit should be left upon record and preserved to all future Generations which were writ by some of the most Eminent of his Holy Prophets and Apostles and which have been unquestionably received in all Ages among the best sort of Christians who have had a true discerning to favour these Holy Writings and Testimonies and that what hath been so writ should be generally received as unquestionable Testimonies and Oracles of God's Holy Spirit and acknowledged as a publick Standard Rule and Touch-stoue whereby to judg and examine all Doctrines and Principles of Religion held forth by any Now it was altogether necessary that this publick Standard and Touch-stone of all Doctrines and Principles of Religion should not be too large and voluminous but compendious and easie to be read over and diligently searched and examined in a short time
that good effect to open the understanding and work holy Affections in the Souls of People it is sufficient to edification For where a thing is well understood a man needs not concern his memory much about it As he who understandeth the reasons and grounds of rules and precepts of Art he can practise the things belonging to that Art better with his understanding without thinking on those rules then he who only hath the rules of Art in his memory but understandeth not the reasons and grounds of those rules Nor can these forms be so edifying as extemporary Prayer by the true Spirit of God because they cannot so universally in all particulars reach to the various states and conditions of Peoples Souls And to say that all the various states of Peoples Souls if there were a thousand of them are comprehended under the words of those general set forms doth not satisfie For as on the one account set forms are too few and strait or narrow to reach all particular states and seasonable times so if generals can serve these set forms commonly used are too many because one only set form of Prayer contained in a few words may in general reach to all Peoples states and surely none doth or can better do that than the Prayer which Christ taught his Disciples And if men deny that they have any assistance of the Spirit to help them to conceive these set forms of Prayer which they use were it not better to collect together forms of Prayer out of the Old and New Testament putting all these words and sentences together which are most to the same purpose or if belonging to several purposes that have some fit connexion together and so the words of their Prayer would be pure Scripture words without any mixture of the words of man's Wisdom which are oft times very unsound 8. They Object That many who Pray extempore contradict one another in thrir Prayers ask contrary things and therefore both such Prayers cannot be from the Spirit of God which as it is one in Nature so in Operations ever agreeing and in unity with it self Ans. The whole weight and stress of this Objection lyeth upon Persons and Men and not upon the Principle to refute or refeâ— it in the least and as for these who most commonly pray contrary one to another they are such who do not pretend or lay claim to pray by Divine Immediate Inspiration But if both sides should lay claim thereunto and yet contradict one another in their Preaching or Praying it only proveth that the men are faulty sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other and sometimes they may be faulty and wrong on both sides but the Principle remaineth still unblamable nor hath this Objection more weight now than in the daies of the true Prophets of old against whom the false Prophets both Preached and Prayed and pretended to be also Divinely and Immediately Inspired as well as the true And lastly This Objection can be well enough retorted for they who pray by Set Forms may pray contrary one to the other The Greek and Latine Churches had both Set Forms of Prayer and prayed one against another as well as preached when that great Zeal and Schism came to be between them And how many Preach against one another who pretend to Scripture and good Reason and also to good Literature which yet is no just reflection on any of these three things but only on the Men or Persons who abuse them 9. It is objected That Paul in his Epistles used the same Forms of Salutations and Prayers both at the beginning and end of them frequently and therefore he could not be against Set Forms who used them so much himself as Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Iesus Christ at the beginning of divers of them and at the end Grace be with you c. Answ. These little short Forms being as is already said upon another occasion expressions and significations of the Prayer of Aspiration and Affection and not of that called Discursive Prayer which require divers Sentences do not infer that Set Forms may be used in Discursive Prayer For when the Heart and Affection is earnestly and zealously bent and moved to desire one only thing it may be expressed in one Sentence and as oft as that Affection is renewed the expression of it in the same Sentence as it freely ariseth in the Heart may be renewed also but men find it not so in Discursive Prayer or other Discursive Exercises As when men at this day commonly write Epistles one to another they retain some little common Forms of Salutation at the beginning and end of their Epistles which are commodious and not thought strange not disliked But if a Man yea if a School-boy at School should alwaies write to his Father or Kindred the same words throughout without any alteration they would say he were a fool and void of understanding to be so barren as to have no new matter in his Epistles even when daily occasion is given 10. It is Objected That God is not delighted with variety of words and novelty of matter and method in new stiles and flourishes of Tropes and Figures and is far unlike those squeemish Stomacks or delicious and lustful Appetites who every day seeketh after variety of Dishes or else they cannot be satisfied at being the Heart that he requireth Answ. It is true God is not delighted with variety of Words and Sentences as Man is or after the manner of Men but yet he requireth that every man make use of the Graces and Gifts which he hath given him and they being the works of God and proceeding from him he may be said to delight in them and in their manifold Variety as he doth in all his other Works altho not after the manner of men yet after such a way and manner as becometh his infinite Greatness and Perfection And tho it be the Heart that God mainly requireth and regardeth yet he commandeth us to love and serve him with our whole man which is our reasonable service and we are to love him with all our Understanding as well as Heart as the Scripture saith and the best and most fruitful part of our Understanding and all the Gifts belonging to it our Judgment Reason and Elocution may and ought to be employed in his Service and in this particular Service of Praver as Holy Men of old who used their Understanding and Reason and such Elocution also and variety of Expressions as God had given them and so ought every Man to do as the Spirit of the Lord leads him and works upon him and those Gifts he has given him without affection or stretching and straining beyond his measure And tho we find no affected or artificial Eloquence in Words of Man's Wisdom which is carnal and from below yet a true Eloquence and excellency of Speech is to be found in many places of Scripture both