could have walked to Christ on his own feet what could he have more desired than to be healed So if we come with our own invention or expression in Prayer we can expect nothing more than to be heard which God the searcher of the heart will as soon do when we draw nigh to him with words of the Churches composing as if they were of our own framing if the Heart be not wanting Yea but methinks I hear some say the Heart must needs be wanting for praying is one thing and reading is another I grant they are two several things but yet they are compatible and may well stand together When we read the Lords Prayer in the sixth Chapter of St. Matthew and our intention is only to inform our selves of the Will of God set down in his Word we acknowledge we do not pray but when we read the Lords Prayer in the Liturgy and we lift up our hearts to God in every of the Petitions then we affirm that we do pray So then when we read and our intention is only to receive knowledge into the soul we do not pray in reading but when in reading we also pour out the requests of our hearts then such reading may truly be called praying Secondly it is objected reading set Prayers out of a Book is a stinting of the Spirit but we ought not to stint or quench the Spirit therefore we ought not to read Prayers out of a Book I answer 1. If he that prays a set Form stints the Spirit then he that prays an extempore Prayer out of the Pulpit stints the spirits of all those that joyn with him for they that hear him and joyn with him are limited by his words and his sense and so it is as bad as a set Form to them for if their minds go along with him they pray the same Prayer that he doth and neither more nor less Now why should the People be tied to the Prayers of the Minister and not the Minister to the Prayers of the Church If it be sinful in one to stint the Spirit it is sinful also in the other and so no publick Prayer where many joyn together could be offered up to God without sin in this respect because the Spirit must be bound up and stinted in all but in him that speaks it But if the meaning of the Objection be that extempore Prayers stint not the Spirit because then a man speaks as the Spirit gives utterance which cannot be in set Forms then this absurdity would follow If to those men which pray extempore the Spirit of God doth dictate those words unto them then those Prayers would be as good Canonical Scripture if written by the Pen of a ready Writer as any of the Psalms of David or Asaph or any of the holy men of old recorded in Scripture which because it would be blasphemy to affirm it roundly follows such Prayers are not spoken as the Spirit gives utterance but are the effects of their own Art and Industry and therefore the turning of that practice into a set Form doth not stint nor quench the Spirit of God in Prayer That those sudden Conceptions are not dictated by the Spirit of God appears plainly by this men of divers opinions pray quite contrary things as for instance a Presbyterian Minister takes a Text sounding as he thinks towards the establishing of Presbytery such as that in 1 Pet. 5.1 The Elders that are among you I exhort who also am an Elder From whence he delivers the Presbyterian Government is the Government Christ establish'd in the Church After his Sermon he prays over again the chief Heads of what he delivered and says Good Lord settle those truths which to day thou hast shewn us concerning Church Government upon our hearts An Independent he comes and he takes a Text which he wrests likewise but it is to Independency and he bids them stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free and be not entangled with the yoke of bondage from which words he delivers for Doctrine that Independency is the only way that Christ hath left for his Church And after Sermon he prays likewise that the People may not receive his Doctrine as the word of a man but as the Will and Word of God Call ye this praying by the Spirit To say so is in deed and truth a blaspheming of the Spirit for the Spirit of God cannot speak contradictions as these men do in their Pulpit Conceptions And yet they would father all upon the incomes of the Spirit which assisted them in carrying on the work of the day Their Sermons being contradictory one to the other and their Prayers sutable to their Sermons their Prayers must needs include contradictions also One prays God to establish Presbytery the other Independency in the Church now how can both these be dictated by one and the same Spirit To pray with the Spirit signifies in Scripture three things 1. To pray by immediate inspiration so as to make no use of our own judgment or reason either in devising the matter or chusing the words but to speak only what the Spirit doth suggest Thus those that penned the Scriptures were inspired and spake not their own private mind or meaning but as they were carried forth out of themselves and moved by the Holy Ghost And so St. Paul is to be understood when he saith I will pray with the Spirit and with the understanding also that is I will use any language which the Spirit shall dictate unto me but I will interpret it that the People may understand it and say Amen unto it for while the Apostles lived there was in the Church an extraordinary gift of Prayer which supplied the place of set Forms but it was as miraculous as the gift of Tongues When this gift and the gift of Miracles ceased they used stated Forms in Publick and the Council of Carthage ordered that no other Prayers should be put up in their Assemblies but what were approved of by wise and prudent men in the Synod lest something through ignorance or inadvertency might be uttered contrary to the Faith and Doctrine of Christ Secondly By praying with the Spirit is meant to pray by the direction of Gods holy Spirit Jude 20. But ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost The Spirit helps in directing us what is fit for us to ask of God and what God sees fit to bestow upon man And this direction is given us in his holy Word where we are taught what to pray for so as not to ask amiss else we should not know what to pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 He that prescribes the model of an house and provides materirials and sets men on work may be truly said to build that house although it be builded by other mens hands So the Holy Ghost prescribing us Forms in the Word and inciting us to pray by promise of
save men but they will not be saved So the year of Jubilee was a true Type of our deliverance by Christ whosoever was in bondage might then go out free wherefore I conclude as sure as we are lost by the first Adam so sure we are redeemed by the second Adam So sure as we are created by God the Father so sure we are redeemed by God the Son and Whoever will believe in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life Vulgar Errors CONCERNING Praying by the SPIRIT Removed THere hath nothing of late years been more mistaken than those Scriptures which speak of praying by the Spirit or the Spirit helping our Infirmities and God's pouring out the Spirit of Prayer and Supplications upon his People Which places have been wrested against a set Form of Prayer as if it were nothing but cold breathings and Lip labour to use their own words and a man in praying such a Prayer could not be assisted by the Spirit of God Their first mistake lieth in this that they do not distinguish between the gift of Prayer and the Spirit of Prayer Many men have a very good gift of Prayer and a very fluent Tongue who yet may be very formal as to their hearts not every one that hath the best gift of Eloquence prays most by the Spirit nor he that hath the meanest gift of Elocution prays least with the Spirit We may instance in Moses and Aaron the one of a stammering tongue the other God gives him this testimony that he could speak well Yet in the famous fight between Israel and Ameleck God makes not choice of Eloquent Aaron but of slowspoken Moses to get the victory by Prayer Though Aaron speak better than Moses yet certainly he could not pray better than he Prayer is a great part of Gods Service and Worship and our blessed Saviour tells us God is a Spirit and must be worshipp'd in Spirit Yet when the Apostles desired him to teach them to pray he did not teach them to pray by the Spirit in their sense who think speaking extempore without premeditation whatever comes into their mind on a sudden is the only praying by the Spirit but he prescribes them a set Form saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. So that a set Form certainly may be prayed by the Spirit else it had never been commanded to be used by our Saviour Christ If it be said the Lords Prayer is a pattern to frame our Prayers by rather than a Prayer it self My answer is As some Weights and Measures which are so exact in their kind being kept as Standards to make other Weights and Measures by do not lose the nature of Weights and Measures upon that account but rather are warranted in their kind So the Lords Prayer by being made a pattern for our Prayers doth not lose the nature of a Prayer but rather is thereby commended to us to be the most absolute Form of Prayer in the world In Numb 6.23 God bids Moses speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the people the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine favourably upon thee c. If any able of themselves to conceive a Prayer we may well suppose it should be the Priest whose Lips should preserve knowledge yet they are prescribed a set Form of blessing the People If it had been prescribed for the simple and ignorant sort it might have been objected They that have not gifts of their own are permitted to make use of other mens gifts but seeing it is prescribed the Priest himself nay even for Aaron the Eloquent High-Priest it strongly concludes for a set Form of Prayer and Benediction to be used in publick by the most able and eloquent Divine Moses a great Prophet who prayed so earnestly that God said Let me alone as if he tied Gods hands yet did he use one set Form of Prayer when the Ark set forward and when it rested Numb 10.35 When it set forward he said Arise O God let thine enemies be scattered let them also that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said constantly Return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel Let us not seek to seem better than he in new Forms every day whose gifts without question were unspeakably greater than ours The 92. Psalm was usually sung in the Church of the Jews every Sabbath day it was penned for that purpose as appeareth by the Title of it Seeing therefore a set Form of Prayer and Praise have been the practice of the ancient Church of God among the Jews and of Christian Churches to this very day let us give them the right hand of fellowship to have a Unity and Uniformity in Publick Worship Our blessed Saviour of whom it was said truly never man spake as he spake yet he useth three times together the same words in his Agony Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me He wanted no variety of words yet he confines himself to the same words the Prophet Joel prescribes the Prayer for the Priest and bids them say Spare thy people good Lord c. St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles used the same Salutation in the beginning of most of his Epistles Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and the same Prayer at the end of them The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen These examples plainly refute the error of those that are against the Liturgy or set Form of Prayer in the Church it is a ridiculous thing to think that as a nice and squeamish stomach is delighted with change of Dishes so God is delighted with variety of words and novelty of matter and method and that unless we have a new stile or a new trope or a new figure or a new flourish every time more than other we have not the Spirit of Prayer nor shall be excepted Every good Christian is not able to conceive a Prayer many have weak Capacities to conceive them want Order and Method to compose them yet even these if they meet with a Prayer framed to their hand can pray fervently and heartily A set Form must needs be a great help to those that are weak and yet willing to pray nay even they that are strong ought not to despise them for Prayers in publick are bounded by authority To pass over those bounds then must needs be offensive to that Authority that prescribed those bounds If any do they foment as it were a Worship distinct and apart from what is authorized by the Church but more reason that the spirit of a Minister should be regulated by the spirit of the Church representative than the spirits of the whole Congregation by the spirit of the Minister If he that was sick of the Palsie that was born of four
is the first mention in the Scripture of any House to be built to the honour of Gods Name Afterwards God bid Moses and Aaron build him an Ark and told them it should be the Covenant and Pledge that he would go along with them and that they should have his presence amongst them and so it was performed accordingly When the Philistines had taken it it plagued them their God Dagon fell before it then they returned it and when Obed-Edom had it the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite and all that appertained to him because of the Ark of God After this David seriously considered with himself that he dwelt in an house of Cedar but the Ark of God was only under a Tent and he vowed a Vow unto the Lord that he would prepare a place for it The very instinct of nature told him it was a shame that his own house should be handsomer than the Publick place of Gods Worship and so it should teach us at this day He prepares with all his might a stupendious quantity of materials for the House of God 1 Chron. 29.4 Three thousand Talents of Gold of the Gold of Ophir and seven thousand Talents of refined Silved to over-lay the Walls of the House withal and Brass and Iron without weight and Marble stones and other Materials without number for he considered that the House was not for man but for God Peaceful Solemon builds this House and consecrates it and God accepts of it and heard the Prayers of his People that were put up in it against Plague Famine Mildew blasting or when the Enemy afflicted them within the Gates when Nebuchadnezzar burnt this house and carried away all the goodly Vessels belonging to it to Babilon Nehemiah rebuilds it and God stirreth up the spirit of Cyrus the Persian to send back again to this Temple five thousand four hundred Vessels of Gold and Silver which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away and put them in the House of his Gods so the Temple was built and beautified and reverenced as Gods Sanctuary as it ought to be But in our Saviour's time men were grown to that height of prophaneness that they brought Sheep and Oxen into that holy place to be sold they made a Market place of it to sell Doves and to change Money but the zeal of Gods House did even eat our Saviour up that is made him seem to forget his mild and gentle nature and use a Rod instead of the spirit of meekness he with a Scourge drove out the Oxen overthrew the Tables of the Money changers and said to them that sold Doves Take these things hence and would not suffer any to carry a Vessel through the Temple because it was an holy place and left a lasting Lesson to us highly to esteem of places dedicated to Gods Worship But here three Questions may arise 1. How comes one place to be more holy than another 2. What kind of holiness is a place capable of 3. Whether if it be granted that a place was so under the Law it be so still under the Gospel To the first I answer a place comes to be holy by being separated from common use and dedicated to the service of God Exod. 13.12 Thou shalt set apart all that openeth the Matrix unto the Lord. Now St. Luke speaking of the same thing in Chap. 2.23 renders it thus Every Male that openeth the womb shall be called holy unto the Lord So that if a thing be set apart for the Lord upon that setting it apart it becomes holy The Israelites were called a holy people because God separated them from all other Nations to be his own peculiar 1 Kings 8.53 And when he would consecrate the Levites to his service from among all the Children of Israel He says thus to Moses Thou shalt separate the Levites from among the Children of Israel and the Levites shall be mine Num. 8.14 so that when a place is separated from common use and dedicated to the service of God that place is a Sanctuary a holy place and till the relation it hath to God for his service is abolished it is to be accounted Sacred So that the notion of Holiness consists in this in being separated and set apart for God The Religious person whilst he is separated from sin and sinners from the allurements of a wicked world and the sinful lusts of the flesh he makes his Soul and Body a Temple for the Holy Ghost 2. If demanded what kind of holiness a place is capable of I answer a place is not capable of any inherent holiness as mans Soul is but only of a Relative holiness and if you will shew so much reverence to a Prince as to be uncovered in his Presence Chamber certainly you ought to shew as much to God to be uncovered in his Sanctuary If it be said true under the Law we grant things had a Relative holiness but how do you prove they have so under the Gospel I answer Time and Place are receptive of holiness alike We know that all times are his for he makes all our days all things are his for the Earth is the Lords and the falness thereof But now if under the Gospel some time may be more peculiarly his than as all time is his and some things may be more peculiarly his than as all things are his then those things which are so peculiarly his may have a Relative holiness in them under the Gospel as well as under the Law for the Relative holiness consists in this peculiar separation to Almighty God Now that some Times may be peculiarly his is plain by St. John's calling the first day of the Week the Lords Day Rev. 1.10 that is set apart for his service by the Apostles and the Church instead of the Jewish Sabbath and some Things may be peculiarly his as doth appear by St. Peters speech to Ananias Whilst it remained was it not thine own c. Acts 5.4 but to keep back what was dedicated to God was a robbing of God A lying unto God and not unto men so that you see God may have a peculiarity in things under the Gospel as well as under the Law And if it be in a Day ye ought to keep it holy if in a House God would have you keep your foot when you enter into the house of the Lord. We have a Generation amongst us that cry up the holiness of the Sabbath and the strict observance of it as if in its minute Appendages it bound us almost as much as it did the Jew and yet these very men will cry down the holiness of the Sanctuary and account themselves very holy in so doing Whereas in Lev. 19.30 God joyns them both together saying Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary If the fourth Commandment of the Decalogue bind us now according to the Letter as they contend why doth their practice in kindling their fire in dressing their food contradict their
they infer That as a dead man doth nothing to the raising of himself no more do we that are spiritually dead As God put forth an Almighty power at the Creation of the world so an irresistable power at our Conversion which is called the new Creation Now the truth is in the middle we need Gods grace as well to assist the Will in goodness as at first to excite to goodness and it is very reasonable to think that as the Devil is dayly and hourly suggesting evil motions to us so God or his good Angel is dayly and hourly inspiring and assisting us to what is good according to that of the Apostle Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it that is will assist you to perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ So that it is plain against Pelagius that God doth not only assist to will but also to do what is good of his good pleasure Neither is it less plain against the other that grace is not so efficaciously inspired into the Soul that is not in the power of the Will to refuse it for this would quite destroy the nature of the Will for as he said well He that cannot chuse but chuse doth chuse because he cannot chuse which is a palpable and thick contradiction Secondly it appears from our Saviours words How oft would I and ye would not that grace is not so irresistibly put to the Will that it is not in the power of the Will to refuse it seeing he blames them for so often forsaking their own mercy So that they not only had a power to resist his grace but brought that power into act in judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life The truth I told you was in the middle way and it hath been the antient opinion of the Church of God for above a thousand years ago that the Will is not destroyed by grace but only repaired A dislocated joynt when it is well set again doth not lose the nature of a joynt but rather is restored to its former use and comliness so the grace of God healing the Will doth not take away the nature of the Will but only makes it able to obey Gods Will. So that when Grace cooperates with the Will man is left in the hand of his own Counsel to turn or not to turn to the Lord God sets life and death before him and bids him reach out his hand to whether he will This is apparent from Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild Grapes under the Parable of a Vineyard the whole House of Israel is shadowed out unto whom God was not wanting in the least measure of gracious dispensations to make them good yet they remained unreformed and were wanting to themselves I shall briefly shew you the meaning of those Scriptures which these men mistaking the one attributes too much the other too little to the Will in Conversion and so proceed Where it is said Now they have no cloak for their sin because Christ came and spake to them by coming and speaking is not only meant barely enlightning them but as appears by the Context he by Miracles so convinced them that resisting those Convictions our Saviour says They hated both him and his Father Joh. 15.24 And as for the other Text urged by Pelagius If ye were blind c. it doth not from thence follow that the Will enlightned needs no other assistance but only thus sins against knowledge are not so easily forgiven as sins of ignorance but deserve more stripes And as for those Texts which are urged on the other hand where it is said We are dead in trespasses and sins and Created in Christ Jesus unto good works c. These speeches are meerly Metaphorical and figurative which they so squeeze till they bring bloud and not milk out of the breasts of the Scripture They are Similitudes only and they would have them run on four feet as if all things that agree to a dead man did agree to a man in the state of nature whereas the one is capable of preventing grace the other is not the one may be raised by means the other can be raised only by miracles Neither sin nor grace take away the natural power of the Will but only thus it is Sin hurts and weakens it especially ill habits grace heals and strengthens it and brings it near to its primitive goodness An old heart and a new heart differ only as an Instrument in tune and the same Instrument out of tune there are the same strings still but not the same ordering of them So the same Understanding Will and Affections a man had before only now placed on God and delighting in goodness which before delighted in sin which they not minding make a man meerly as a Tool in the hand of a Workman or a Pen in the hand of a Writer meerly passive to any good action A man before any Grace be offered hath a Free Will to natural acts and a remote one to supernatural that is a power to embrace Grace and work in the strength of it in case it be offered The man which lay at the Pool of Bethesda had not lost his Limbs only the use of them When Christ strengthened those palsie members he arose took up his Bed and went unto his house Thus the weak Will is strengthened by the grace of Christ but being strengthened is able to do what is good God doth persuade the Will by extrinsical helps as well as intrinsical inspirations Those providential acts of Abigail meeting David or of Sauls sleeping in the Trench when David took away his Spear from his Bolster were of grace not only to David but also to Saul and turned his heart from pursuing David Efficacious Grace to use their own term is nothing but perswasion which doth not determine the Will but only is so congruously and seasonably put that it is not rejected of the Will Extraordinary gifts are wrought immediately by Gods holy Spirit without mans cooperation Sauls Prophesying was without his assent to it if every act of grace were thus given what difference would there be between his manner of giving ordinary and extraordinary gifts The Spirit of God is said to help our infirmities in our Prayers in stirring up ardency of devotion in us the original word for Help is a double compound and is Metaphorically put for it hath relation to one that helps to bear part of anothers burthen for him taking it off in part from his shoulders and putting it on his own or else helping him to lift it up Now he that is holpen in bearing or lifting a burthen doth something sure himself towards the bearing or lifting of it And so did St. Paul cooperate with the grace of God for he saith I
reward and the like may be intituled to our Prayers Thirdly He assisting us with inward motions carrying forth our affections with zeal and fervency further than naturally they would tend may in this sense be stiled the Author of our Prayers As wicked men giving place to the Devil Satan carries forth their malice into murder and raises storms of passions in their Souls even as the Wind raises the Waves of the Sea even so on the contrary a man applying his heart to seek the Lord and call upon his Name the Holy Ghost aids him by his grace to make powerful Supplications with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered Now every adopted child of God the Apostle witnesses Gal. 4.6 hath these aids and assistances of the Holy Ghost in their Prayers stirring up their hearts to cry Abba Father thus and thus only they that are the Sons of God pray by the Spirit of God Now seeing the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication consists chiefly in a fervent application of the mind to the thing that is desired and to Almighty God of whom it is desired It necessarily follows that words that are known and fitted to mens understandings are soonest received into their hearts and aptest to carry along with them judicious and fervent affections But it is objected That a set Form of Prayer makes an ignorant Ministry a School-boy may read a Prayer out of a Book To that I answer experience proves it hath not done so for the gravest and learnedest Scholars are for it There are other Offices for the Minister which require his diligence and his study First his diligence to Catechize the Children visit the Sick Secondly His study to divice the Word of truth aright comfort the weak stop the mouths of gainsayers so that he hath matter enough to exercise his parts about although he strive not to attain to that extempore way of uttering any thing before God which wise Solomon never admired And as for what you say concerning the School-boy the same objection might have been brought against Gods Priests in the Old Law that a Burcher might have kill'd a Lamb or a Sheep for Sacrifice as well as they But was that any disparagement to the Priest No more is this to Gods Minister that another can read Prayers as well as he seeing it is his Office and not theirs to do it But it is objected A set Form is superfluous for Nature will teach any man to shew his grief and a Lazer need not read out of a Book pray heal my Arm or my Log no more needs a man that is sensible of the plague of his own heart a set Form of Prayer in a Book To that my answer is twofold First Even poor lazer people to move others to pity and compassion will study pathetical Expressions and use humble deportment and great importunity and yet find all little enough to move compassion Will they do this for their Bodies and shall not we be more earnest for our Souls Secondly There is a vast difference betwixt a Private Prayer and a Publick Prayer a Private Prayer points to the sore of a mans own heart in this or that particular whereof perhaps all circumstances considered not one of many is guilty but a Publick Prayer ought to be so composed that it may concern all the Congregation and all the People may say Amen to it Now for a man to pray out of the sense of his own wants only may be a good Prayer for his private devotion but it cannot be so proper or so profitable for the Publick as a set Form wherein the Composers consider the usual wants of all Mankind If a man were to prefer a Petition to his Prince would he speak extempore Why what thou wouldst not offer to him thou oughtest not to offer to God Mal. 1.8 the reason is full of moral equity God is a greater King than he If you would be ashamed or afraid to bring indigested stuff to the one much more should you be so affected to bring abortive Conceptions before the other We may as well pray a set Prayer by the Spirit as sing a set Psalm by the Spirit Now even their own practice bearing witness these men can sing a set Psalm by the Spirit I mean after a gracious manner so that nothing but inadvertency to their own custom makes them grant the one and deny the other Indeed they do well in singing David's Psalms and they follow the example of Hezekiah therein who commanded to sing praises with the words of David and Asaph I could wish for the future that their Prayers were of the same nature with their Praises for these few Reasons with which I will conclude this discourse First A man may as well know before-hand with what words to pray as to what sense Secondly They that pray not the same words do use mostly to pray for the same things in other words As that God would forgive their sins avert his judgments strengthen their weak graces weaken their strong corruptions and the like Thirdly Because these are most for the edification of the People who by often hearing of the same Prayer can commit it to memory and used to the same Liturgy can joyn and answer in many pathetical Responsals Now all things in Publick ought to be done to Edification Fourthly An extempore Prayer may likewise hinder the devotion of the Minister as well as of the People for his understanding may be so taken up in thinking what to say next that he may be very formal as to his heart and many times will be forced to be so for fear he should be out Fifthly Our experience hath shewed us that their Method hath been confused their Tautologies many their Traulisms absurd their Sense none of the best their Passions vented and the Dreadful Name of God so lightly so frequently and so unnecessarily used in them that many understanding men because of them have been ready to abhor the Sacrifice of the Lord and could seldom or never say Amen to them Whereas in a set Form we are sure before-hand there is nothing put up in Petition but what is fit for Man to ask or God to give and therefore we can heartily without any hesitancy say Amen to it FINIS