operations of the Holy Spirit in their own Hearts Know then that we do believe know and witness it to be Truth that when God's Holy Spirit inspireth us immediately and moveth us to Preach or Pray or give Thanks as it did Holy Men of God of old and Holy Women also even Daughters as well as Sons and Maid-servants as well as Men-servants and so doth at this day the said Holy Spirit worketh upon our Understandings and Reasons as we are Men and reasonable Creatures and upon all the powers and abilities of our Souls according to their several capacities and the Graces and Spiritual Gifts we have received from God and all that is in us of parts whether natural or acquired or supernatural and maketh them serviceable to us and active in the work and service of God more or less as he pleaseth And thus when we pray or give thanks in Words as we receive these words from the Lord when the Prayer and Thanksgiving is purely and rightly performed so they also spring up in us from the fruitfulness of understanding and those parts and graces which God hath given us and our Hearts and Souls and Spirits are the Mothers that bring them forth and the good matter and purposes whereof they declare together with the good life vertue and force or energy that is in them or doth accompany them Hence true and right Prayer in Scripture is called A pouring out of the Soul and Heart so that somewhat of the very inward strength vertue and power of the Soul and Heart of man yea of his Spirit or what is most noble and excellent in him goeth forth in words whether of Preaching or Praying or giving of Thanks as he is truly and fervently exercised in the same by the moving and enabling of the Holy Ghost according to which David Psal. 103. 1. stirred up not only his Soul to praise the Lord but all that was within him note to bless his Holy Name Which tender and sensible hearers whose Souls and Hearts God hath quickned and made alive are well sensible of and can and do well distinguish betwixt a dead and a living or a barren and fruitful Ministry whether in Preaching or Prayer Habet enim nescio quid latentis energiae viva vox transmissâ— per aures in animos audientium fortius sonat Which is in English thus The living Voice saith he hath I know not what something of a secret energy or power and being transmitted through the Ears of the Hearers into their Hearts and Minds doth sound the more effectually And if this be true of a natural Speech when it comes from a mans heart and is spoke but with a natural Fervency that it reacheth forcibly the natural Faculties of the Hearers which borrowed speeches or those which come not from the heart but from the bare understanding and memory cannot do How much more is it apparent in words and speeches that are Spiritual which come both from the Heart livingly touched and affected with the sense of the things whereof the words declare and also from the Spirit of the Lord Hence it is said that Christ spoke as one having authority and not as the Scribes and the Apostles Preaching was with power and the Holy Ghost and so no doubt was their Praying Q. Is it any part of Gospel Worship or Prayer to read set forms of Prayer out of a Book whether in private or publick or whether all Vocal Prayer used either in private or publick in Families or large Congregations should not be as the Spirit of God helps the Speakers to conceive and gives them an utterance to bring forth Words of Prayer or Thanks giving we cannot believe nor are we convinced in Conscience A. To read set forms of Prayer out of a Book whether in private or publick and call that reading Prayer is any part of Gospel Worship or true and real Prayer but rather one of the many Inventions and Traditions of Men since the Apostacy and falling away from the true Faith did enter among those called Christians who retained the Name but losed the power and Spirit of the true ancient and primitive Christians For surely if it had been any part of Gospel Worship Christ or the Apostles would have mentioned it and the Scripture would have born record of it as they do of all the parts of Gospel Worship and true Christian Religion And 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 for none were so fit to have given forth such forms of Prayers after Christ his Ascension and giving of the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were who were so abundantly replenished with the Holy Spirit 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 Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his time who lived above Two Hundred Years after Christ for Tertullian telleth plainly the manner how Christians Prayed in his time Ex pertore sue Monitore per Spiritum Sanctum i. e. From the Heart without a Monitor or any thing outwardly to teach them and by the Holy Spirit But Secondly They who plead for using read set Prayers in the Church do acknowledg they were not in use nor practised in the Apostles days nor in the days of their immediate Successors for they grant that in those early and primitive times they who prayed in the Church as the mouth of the whole Congregation were assisted and guided by the Holy Spirit and that their Words both of Prayer and singing Psalms were by immediate Inspiration So that it is as clear as the Noon-day that when these Divine Gifts of Praying and Singing by the Spirit were lost and the Holy Spirit himself the Author and Fountain of those Gifts was in great measure departed from the invention of reading ser 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 to his Soldiers to say but yet they were not to read it but get it by Heart and we must consider that Constantine himself at this time was but a young Christian and the purity of Spiritual Worship began to decline apace even in his daies and most of his Souldiers were Heathens and no Christians so that what they did was no president to us 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 It seemeth the Third Council of Carthage about the year after the Birth of Christ 397. did first ordain Set Forms of Prayer in the Church to prevent or hinder mens uttering any thing either ignorantly or rashly
praise the Name of the Lord for all his great and rich Mercies and Blessings And if the Spirit of the Lord did not enlighten the Understanding and Mind of Man to teach him what to seek and pray for but only did warm and heat Mens affections all this would be but a blind Devotion which all true Protestants cry out against c. That Heavenly and Sacred Fire that God sends down into the Hearts of his People is not a dark obscure Fire but shining and enlightening and hath Light as well as Heat in it The Spirit of Prayer and Supplication is not only a Spirit of Love but a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding And though there is a kind of Prayer that may be and oft is without Words either expressed or conceived in the Understanding because there is a degree of Understanding in Man that transcendeth all Words I mean such Words as we commonly use which are the signs of things signified by them as Aristotle defineth Words Verba sunt signarerum i. e. Words are the signs of things In which high degree of Understanding the Spirit and Mind of Man reacheth to the Divine and Heavenly things themselves without these words where the things are words themselves or where the words and things are not distinct But the thing is its own word and the word that signifieth it as the thing it self But Aristotle so much admired for his worldly Wisdom and Philosophy as it seemeth knew not this Mystery nor yet do his followers Notwithstanding of which because the Lord who is Infinitely Bountiful and Gracious unto men doth not only inlighten and shine upon this highest part of Man's Understanding but also causeth his Light and Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding to descend to the lowest degree thereof even to his Reason and Imagination for the very Imagination of man is said in Scripture to be wrought upon by the Spirit of God see Isa. 26. 3. That which is Translated in and according to the Hebrew signifieth Imagination See also 1 Chron. 29. 18. Keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts c. Which inferiour and lower Powers of man's Soul cannot reach to Divine things without the signes of Words Therefore it pleaseth God to work upon the Understandings of Men so as to make them fruitful to bring forth good and pertinent Words of Truth as well as upon their minds and affections to bring forth the fruits of Holy and Spiritual desires Wherefore the Apostle Prayed to the Lord that God would establish the true Believers in him in every good word and work 2 Thes. 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 own Understandings as the spirit of the Lord doth water them and make them fruitful after a Heavenly sort For it is not the Corn that lyeth upon the ground though ever so abundantly which hath grown in another Land or Country that denominates the Ground where it lyeth to be fruitful but that is only a fruitful Ground which bringeth forth from within it self as it is assisted by the Heavenly Rains and Influences the like Corn or any other Grain that is good and profitable And therefore it is not the abundance even of Scripture Words which a man receives into his memory or bare natural Understanding that simply makes his Mind and Understanding fruitful unto God but the inward sense and mystery of Scripture words must be opened in him by the Spirit of the Lord and then the Understanding of a man by the help of the Scripture words being inwardly and spiritually opened by the Holy Spirit brings forth as it were as so many Seeds a plentiful Harvest where the good Ground of the good and honest Heart yieldeth its fruit some Thirty some Sixty and some an Hundred Fold and alwaies with some increase So that although Scripture words have a most excellent service and use to the Children of God and their minds and understandings are made fruitful with the Spiritual knowledg and opening of them by the Spirit of the Lord As the ground or soil is with seed sown in it yet the understanding is not confined to the strict and precise number of scripture words but yieldeth an increase of other words from the same spirit and of the same tendency and signification As the seed that is sown yeildeth more Grains than what was sown These and such like openings in great plenty to the praise of God have livingly sprung up in me as concerning Prayer time after time and have at the present writing been livingly brought to my remembrance with an addition of many more which here I present to all Friendly and Loving Readers to whose hands this may come for a general service where I have handled and treated of things I hope soberly and fairly in the spirit of Love and Meekness not naming any Persons or Parties by way of reflection to provoke them to anger or dislike only with some Fervency But yet in true Love I have reproved and argued against those who pretend to Pray by the Spirit without a set Form and yet deny the spirits Immediate Teachings and assistance And tho I aim against Reading set Forms of Prayer so as to make that Reading to be Prayer it self yet I am not simply against Reading of Prayers which have in any measure proceeded from the spirit of God in the Ages past SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING PRAYER And some Reasons that all Prayer in words whether conceived in the Heart or uttered and expressed by Mouth should be by the help of the Spirit helping us to conceive those words With an Answer to some Objections or seeming Reasons brought for using set Forms of Prayer read out of a Book Also concerning Singing or Praising God with a Psalm Quest. WHat is Prayer A. It is a calling upon the Name of God through Jesus Christ and the asking of him in Faith the things which we should or do desire Q. What are these things which we should desire and ask of God by Prayer A. They are many but may be reduced to these Three Heads 1. The things which are for God's Glory and the Sanctifying his great Name in the Earth 2. The things which we stand in need of or want as to our selves 3. We are also to Pray for others even for all men that they may be saved whose Day of Salvation is not expired yea for our greatest Enemies Also we are to Pray for the Church of God in general that God may build her up more and more preserve and defend her multiply his Graces and pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon her and upon her Members in their respective places and especially for those who have a publick Ministry in the Church that he may
to find how the Doctrines and Principles Preached by others did agree or disagree with them as the Spirit of the Lord should give an Understanding and so according to receive or reject them And God in his Infinite Wisdom hath seen fit that the Writings of the ancient Prophets Apostles and Evangelists should only be this publick and universal outward Standard as having some peculiar excellency in them of plainness and briefness and comprehending much matter in few words and writ from a deeper and larger measure of the Divine Wisdom to which no writings or words since uttered are comparable in equality or in the service they were designed for And more might be said as to this matter to show the excellency of the Scriptures above all other writings or words the Scriptures being generally received and believed and that worthily to be pure and infallible Testimonies of Truth without any mixture of humane weakness error or mistake as they were originally writ and continue at this day as to the main and giving sufficient evidence and witness to necessary Truths which we are not bound to believe equally concerning any other writings as being wholly and throughout Infallible and therefore may take leave to question them and accordingly as we find them to agree or disagree with the said publick Standard of the Scriptures Testimony to receive or reject them in part or in whole And admitting or granting that many Testimonies of Good and Holy Men their Preaching Praying and Writing should wholly agree to the Scriptures Testimony and that they have also proceeded from a measure of the same Spirit purely and without all mixture yet they are not to be made equal with that which by the Appointment of God and general consent of Christians is made the publick Standard of Truth As in respect of an outward Testimony for in all Cities and Corporations the publick Standard of Weights and Measures is of greater and more Authority than any others however so just and agreeable to them And this Objection hath no more force or weight against Preaching and Praying by Divine Inspiration now than it had Two or Three Hundred Years after the Birth of Christ when it is generally confessed the gift of Preaching and Praying by the Immediate Inspiration of the Spirit did remain in the Church and yet their words were not held equal to the Scripture in that day And tho we may not add our Words and Testimonies the purest of them to be any part of Scripture yet we dare not be so Presumptuous as to say there never was nor ever shall be more Scripture than what we have at present for it is probable more of equal Authority with what we have hath been but is lost and possibly some judged Apocryphal by one sort may be of equal Authority and value with God and other good men with other parts of Scripture that are acknowledged Neither are all Christians yet agreed upon the number of the Books of Scripture but it sufficeth that so much is generally agreed upon as is sufficient to be a publick Standard And lastly this Objection can be equally retorted upon the makers of it For they do hold That all the Words in their Set Forms of Prayer are either plain express Scripture Words or deduced and deduceable from them by just and necessary consequence of Truth and what is so deduced are the real Commands and of Oracles God as they or at lest as most of them say as in the example of Infant Baptism which they hold to be a command of God consequently a Divine Oracle and yet they confess it is no where expressed in Scripture but only by consequence deduced from it the which notwithstanding is justly denyed by many to be any firm or sure consequence of Scripture And if none of their set Forms of Prayer have come originally no not in the least measure from the Spirit of God in those who Penned them it seemeth a great derogation to those Prayers and to render them of small value with the People therefore such who use this Objection against us should take heed lest they derogate from their own Prayers and so fall under the censure of their own Brethren But perhaps some will acknowledg that the Spirit helped those who Penned these set Forms of Prayer not only by exciting or moving their affections but also by working upon their Understandings and make them fruitful to conceive the matter or words of these Prayers but not Immediately or by an Immediate Divine Inspiration as the Spirit wrought in David and others who preached and prayed by Immediate Inspiration so as to make no use of their judgment and reason to find out the matter or chuse the words they expressed To this I answer that David or any other of the Prophets and Apostles when they were Immediately Inspired to Preach or Pray or Write made no use of their Judgment and Reason or other Faculties and Abilities of their Souls or that the Spirit of God which wrought in them made no use of them but as meer passive Subjects and Recipients is a thing commonly alledged by those men but no where proved either from express Words of Scripture nor from any just and necessary consequence therefrom Yea the contrary is manifest from Scripture that the Spirit of God wrought upon and used the Understanding and Rational Faculties and Abilities of the Prophets and Apostles not as meer passive Instruments alwaies or most frequently but made them fruitful to work and co-operate with him as Paul who Preached and Prayed by Immediate Inspiration as they do confess said That he had laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles which was not a meer bodily labouring but a travelling or labouring in Spirit more especially wherein his Understanding and rational Faculties were concerned as well as his Will and Affections which is also clearly implied in his following words Yet not I but the Grace of God with me So that it was not he alone nor the Grace alone but the Grace of God co-working with him that caused this earnest and servent labouring in Paul's Soul. Nor is there any more reason to say that the Understandings and Reasons of the Prophets and Apostles when they spoke by Immediate Revelation were wholly passive than to say their Wills and Affections were wholly passive or their Mouths and Tongues when they spoke And the diversity of Stile in the Pen-men of the Scriptures which varieth not only according to the natural gifts and parts wherewith they were more or less endued but also according to their Education and Acquired Parts doth sufficiently show they were not altogether passive The stiles and manner of expression used by Isaiah Paul and Luke clearly show their Education differing from the homely stile of Amos a Country-man who said He was no Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet Paul said he could Pray not only with the Spirit but with the Understanding meaning certainly that his Understanding might