the title of Prayers to wit as he counts them according to the Septuagint Psal 16.85.89.101 but in our English Bibles Psal 17.86.90.102 And from hence we may infer the usefulness of Forms for the promoting piety according to the purport and design of my foregoing Argument 40. Liturgies justified by allowing Psalms in Meter to be sung Secondly Whilst he allows the using set Forms of Prayer and praising God in meter to be good and Religious because the matter is directed by God though the expressions are not he doth hereby so far as concerns reason and Argument yield that which will necessarily infer the usefulness of Liturgies to be in like manner generally used For the like allowance may certainly be made to the use of words in prose which may be made to them in meter which is according to his sense that they may by all Christians be profitably used where the matter of them is none other than what God himself hath directed us to pray for and the words such as are fit to express that matter which is according to his will And there is greater security of the matter of a fixed well-considered Liturgy being such as God approves of than there can be in the usual variations of the conceived Prayers of some thousands of persons 41. Thirdly Whilst our Author declares he i p. 78. Ecclesiastical Hymns of publick use in the Christian Church abhorreth any singing in publick worship or what is not composed by the Pen-men of holy Writ even this also is very unreasonable The Scriptures indeed direct us both to pray and to sing praises to God but it is the matter and pious performance of them and not the different tone or flexure of the voice which God regardeth And it is certainly as hard a task for him to prove that we may sing to God in no other Hymns but what are expressed in Scripture as it would be for him to prove that we may pray to God in no other Prayer than what is contained in Scripture which would be as much against other conceived Prayers as against Forms Especially when in some ancient Churches as well as modern their practice was what k Aug. Cons l. 10. c. 13. S. Augustine commends in Alexandria in the time of Athanasius that their reciting Psalms or Hymns was modico flexu vocis with a small alteration of the voice and the manner of uttering them was pronuncianti vicinior quam canenti more a deliberate speaking than a proper singing But there must be an extraordinary acuteness of nicety to discover why any person may express the praises of God according to his own conceptions in his ordinary way of speech but may not do it in somewhat a more deliberate way of pronunciation 42. Fourthly If it had been for our Authors purpose he would have thought it a sufficient proof from Scripture for the composing new Hymns that the Prophet Isay with respect to the Gospel times commands to sing to the Lord a new song Is 42.10 And that the Angelical Hymn Luk. 2. and those of the Virgin Mary of Zechary and of Simeon were all of them newly composed for the special occasions that the Apostle declared he would sing with the spirit 1 Cor. 14.15 and that S. John in his Vision of the Gospel worship representeth the Church as singing a new song Rev. 5.9 and ch 14.3 And however this Writer censureth this the general practice of the Christian Church hath ever admitted and used some hymns composed by men having a particular respect to Christianity as our Church ordereth the Son of S. Ambrose Very many such Ecclesiastical Hymns are collected by l Cassand Hymn Eccl. Cassander And this practice was as early in the Church as the end of the first Century when Pliny upon Examination of the practice of the Christians in their Assemblies found that they were wont upon a set day to meet together before it was light m Plin. Epist l. 10. Ep. 97. carménque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem and to say an hymn to Christ as being God one towards another Now in that it was their usual practice to say such an Hymn and that this was expressed by the generality of the Assembly this speaks it a Form which they used and the phrase of secum invicem is a considerable intimation that they expressed it by parts or Responsals one towards another And its being said to Christ as God makes it highly probable that it was an Hymn particularly composed under Christianity in honour of Christ But this is fully confirmed in that it was part of the charge against Paulus Samosatenus by n Eus Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Council of Antioch that he suppressed the use of those Hymns which were upon our Lord Jesus Christ as being new things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the compositions of men of late days And that there were various Psalms and Odes composed before that time by Christians concerning the Divinity of Christ is also declared in o Eus Hist l. 5. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eusebius 43. But the true cause why our Author doth not allow of any Hymns composed since the Apostles time is not from any Reason or Scripture but because this would not serve the interest of his opinion and withal secure the practice of our Dissenters For he acknowledgeth that the whole Congregation joining in singing p Reas Acc. p. 78. cannot possibly be done but by a set Form without notorious confusion and therefore the allowing new Hymns to be composed would include an allowing men to appoint Forms of Prayer and praise And besides this he is sensible that they cannot without running into many indecencies pretend to abilities of constant varied conceptions in the making Hymns since as he saith q p. 78. not one of many attain the gift of Hymn-making 44. Concerning the Holy Scriptures he saith r p. 60. there are Precepts for reading them and also promises in the same case But this doth the more strengthen my Argument because such Forms as are so far appointed and approved of God can be no hindrances to Piety He saith also f p. 61. that there are different workings of the Soul to God in Prayer and in reading But though there be different acts of the mind exercised in these duties yet that consideration reverence faith submission and other gracious dispositions which sute the special parts of divine truth doth require as much seriousness diligence and care in reading the Holy Scriptures as in Prayer And however having shewed that a Form of words in Prayer doth not hinder any exercises of piety therein I do not think this exception to deserve any further answer 45. But what he saith t Ibid. that there are different workings of the soul towards God in singing and in Prayer I suppose he will upon further consideration discern to be an oversight Since the
in a persons being able to express his mind whereas it is chiefly to be provided that the conceptions of his mind be sober and well ordered comprehensive and every way sutable to the nature of the duty 2. In that he only mentions the expressing his mind Whereas in publick Prayers it is not a mans own private desires or wants so far as they are peculiar to himself which he is to present to God but he is to express what is fit to represent the minds of the whole Assembly and the common desires and wants and joint Devotions of all the Congregation 46. Another place I shall examine is where he tells us they x p. 9 10. His defavâ—ing the ministry of our Church is unjust and unreasonable think it will be hard to find nine or ten thousand Scholars in England furnished with the gift either of praying or preaching in any tolerable manner and one great reason is because they have been so tied to a Liturgy that they have never applied themselves to the study of the Scriptures and their own hearts as they should Thus in this place and in many others he takes any occasion to reproach and cast dirt upon the Ministry of the Church of England even to such excess as sometimes to call them though he excepts very many particular persons from that charge y p. 124. an ignorant lazy and sottish Ministry And he is the more liberal in these exorbitant Censures when he doth withal bespatter our Liturgy as in both these places or what he terms z p. 149. that pitiful thing called Vniformity in words and syllables and phrases 47. Now I conceive my self abundantly warranted to say that the abilities of the present Ministry of the Church of England are such as were never in this Church outdone if equalled in any foregoing Age nor as I verily believe in any other part of the Christian World since the Apostolical times in any Church of so large extent And it is an easy thing but mightily unworthy of a Professor of Christianity to speak bad and evil words of the mosT worthy men and things But doth the use of a Liturgy hinder men from studying the Scriptures or their own hearts which is a loud calumny upon our Ministry and many other excellent persons of eminent piety and goodness who have a very high value for our Liturgy and were the ancient Fathers and our first Reformers and their Successors who closely adhered to a Liturgy men of no understanding in the Scriptures and men of no piety of heart or holiness of life Or is the dayly reading the Scriptures as is done in the Liturgy and by the Ministry of England at other times also that which must hinder mens study and understanding in them and is the constant use of morning and evening devotions which the Liturgy directeth the great obstacle to piety and to mens taking serious care of their own hearts to have them possessed with fear and reverence of God and disposed to the exercises of Religion and universal obedience And what a wild accusation is this to revile and asperse a National Ministry at random and at a venture concerning such things wherein every Reader may discern that it is impossible for him to know what he speaks to be true and others blessed be God know them to be false 48. And I wish our Author be not himself defective in some part at least of what he chargeth upon others For in studying the Scriptures he could not but meet with Precepts against evil speaking false accusing rash judging and uncharitableness and in studying his own heart he would discern whether he had not offended in any of these And I presume him though I am not very certain who he is to be so much a Scholar as to know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the usual Greek word for the Evil one doth properly and primarily signify a Calumniator and it is thence unlikely that any of the spirit of Christianity should be contained in reproaching others which Nazianzen accounted to be a Naz. Orat 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the greatest evils 49. In Answer to such words I could also without much pains find out defaming and reflective expressions if I were enclined that way but I am content herein to be inferiour to him but truly sorry to see what liberty he sometimes gives himself in such things I have long since learned from the example of our Lord and Saviour from the rules of the Christian Religion and particularly from our Church-Catechism to keep my tongue from evil-speaking lying and slandering And if he will not take it ill from me which I assure him I intend no otherwise than with a truly charitable mind I dare confidently affirm that if he shall please to be a strict observer of so much though it be out of our Liturgy he will not thereby be the worse man 50. And I hope he may be the less offended with me for this Counsel because I do not write it out of any private provocation or any apprehension of disrespectful expressions towards my self I acknowledge his expressions towards me in particular to have been very civil and courteous and I thank him for them And I shall not return to him any thing unmeet But I should not be faithful to the truth nor to himself if I should not shew the weakness and mistakes of his Arguments so far as I discern them And the duty I owe to the Church of which I am a member cannot well be discharged without taxing his reproachful words against it where I meet with them 51. What he speaketh concerning b p. 18 19. Hymns and Anthems I shall have occasion to take notice of in the next c Ch. 3. Sect. 2. n. 38 c. Chapter CHAP. III. Of Devotion and attentive fervency of mind in publick Prayer and whether the use of Liturgies be hindrances or helps therein SECT I. His pretences for Forms of publick Prayer being an impediment to attention and fervency examined and the contrary manifested HIS second Argument against the lawfulness of the ordinary publick use of Forms by him who hath abilities of expressing himself without them is that they hinder the attention intention and fervency both of Minister and people and therefore a Reas Acc. p. 23. may not be used But this charge against well-ordered Forms can never be made out and his proofs will appear very weak and slender 2. Now I freely acknowledge and assert Pious devotion greatly needful in Prayer that in our Prayer we ought to have a holy and Religious sense of God and of Jesus our Mediator We ought also to be serious in minding and attending to the duty in hand Ch. III. and as free as may be from distractions and to have a lively exercise of faith hope reverence and such other Christian Graces as I mentioned in the b n. 2. former Chapter And the
prejudices hurry men into the most unreasonable absurdities and unaccountable censures of others And that we may further see how much this Writer fights in the dark and doth not weigh the force and tendency of what he urgeth to prove Forms to be an obstruction to fervency in Prayer he tells us they b p. 28 29. think it not possible that the words of another should so well fit our hearts and be so expressive of raised affections as our own Some things urged against forms of Prayer will equally conclude-against all publick worship Now these words are of no weight against Forms since they may best express what things we ought to desire But I suppose he did not consider that what he thus speaks tends to declare that the people cannot with fervent affections join with the Minister in any Prayer whatsoever because they are not their own words and then all publick Prayer fitted to the people must be condemned and so they must either take up with the Quakers silence or the Romish service where the Assembly are not capable of understanding and consequently of joining with the Priests in their Service 13. But he hath another thing to urge which particularly concerneth the Ministers reading of a Form and that is that then c p. 29. the soul looks through the eye and is diverted from its contemplation upon God His sense is that the looking upon the words in the Book must hinder his heart from being directed unto God because as he after saith d p. 31. and the same sence p. 52. it is impossible that any created being should in the same action duly intend two objects Now our Author is so unhappy in his Arguments that they not only recoil with equal violence upon himself but what he urgeth is against all vocal Prayer whether of Ministers or others in publick or in private and also against others joining with them For the considering of words phrases method and sense is a different thing in conceived Prayer from the directing the heart and spirit unto God and this must take up more of his mind and thoughts than the looking upon a Book doth And the peoples hearing and observing the words of Prayer spoken is as different a thing from the motions of the mind toward God as the seeing the same words is Reading or hearing words hinders not the minding the sence of them But in truth since the main use of words is that they are to express things the use of the same act about the word and the thing signified by it as to understand each of them or the use of such different acts about the word and the thing signified by it as to read or hear the one and to understand or be affected with the other are no impediments at all to the vigorous actings of our souls and minds He must be no ordinary man that is able to make out that the seeing or hearing the words of any Proposition or Discourse hindreth from clearly understanding the sense thereof when these words are wholly subservient to the thing to express the sense and meaning thereof Nor can I be perswaded that I affect any thing of God or goodness the less for hearing or reading such words as represent and express them or direct and excite my affections towards them And withal he who is well acquainted with a Form of Prayer needeth no industrious exercise of his eye in the use thereof 14. But on the other hand Manifold advantages to piety from the use of Forms of Prayer since in such conceived Prayers as our Author pleads for the Ministers mind must be imployed in considering and conceiving and digesting his words and his method and sense and is apt to be sometimes solicitous lest he do amiss in any of these and may sometimes have pleasing reflexions upon his own fluency or the contrary these things may more justly be esteemed hindrances to his devotion And besides what I have abovesaid concerning the devotions of the people the using conceived Prayers as the publick service of the Church may be an impediment thereof upon these several accounts 1. They are not certain that they can join in the matter of a new conceived Prayer till they have well considered it and therefore are the more apt to hesitate concerning it 2. In the time of Prayer they may be too apt to give their minds liberty of observing the expressions and the manner of the composure of the Prayer either to judge of it or imitate it which tend to distract the mind and divert it from the worship of God 3. And they further want this benefit which attendeth our publick Form that the joining in that Prayer which is with one accord put up to God in the several Assemblies of our Church may reasonably be and to many is a quickning of their devotion from the benefit of Christian Vnity and the e Bishop Sparrow's Rationale of Com. Prayer p. 9. promise annexed thereunto Mat. 18.19 20. Concerning which Text S. Cyprian observed that though some not considering the whole discourse made use of the last clause to encourage division yet it appears from the Connexion of that with the former Verse If two of you shall agree c. that f Cypr. de Unit. Eccl. si collecti unanimiter oraverint duo aut tres licet sint impetrare possunt de Dei Majestate quod postulant if they be gathered together with one accord though they be but two or three they may obtain what they seek for of the divine Majesty And therefore there may be a greater hope of obtaining those very things which we particularly know to be the joint desire of so great a number of Christians 4. Besides this there are very many persons who have not that quickness of capacity which is necessary for their hearts and affections to go along with new Prayers who yet can piously and devoutly join in those they have been well acquainted with 5. And withal whensoever there are as is too frequent any impertinencies or unadvised and unbecoming expressions in conceived Prayer or whatsoever is the result of passion imprudence negligence weakness or bad principles and erroneous opinions this must be expected to be a disturbance and hindrance to the fervency and devotion of the Auditors 15. But because I am apprehensive Whether in the Apostles times all publick worship was performed by extraordinary gifts that some may be apt to think that much of what I have said in the preferring the use of publick Forms to other conceived Prayers may seem applicable at first view to the Apostolical times also as if the use of their miraculous gifts when they used no Forms were to be undervalued I shall therefore desire these things may be considered First that as it is manifest that under the Old Testament they who had the gift of prophecy were not at all times under the special impulses of the divine spirit
a renewed and Holy life is necessary hereto is manifest from that wrath and threatning denounced against workers of Iniquity and from the impossibility for them to find favour in the sight of God who do not do the Will of our Father which is in Heaven 14. Yet the Gospel justification upon these terms of Grace in the new Covenant is still through the redemption of our Saviour and faith in him and from the benefit of his Sacrifice we receive the pardon of our sins in the Holy Sacraments of the Gospel especially in the administration of which Sacraments is a principal part of the benefit of the Ministry of Reconciliation But it cannot be that the Righteousness of Christ should be so imputed to us that we should be looked on as having done or suffered what he did or suffered for then must every Christian be reputed and looked on as having performed the office of Mediator and having paid to God the price of Redemption for the sins of the World and as having made Reconciliation and obtained thereby Remission and then besides many other gross absurdities they might be invocated on this account for the dispensing the same And they who are reputed to have performed compleat actual sinless Obedience need no such Grace whereby they must receive pardon and Remission But the Holy Jesus by his Sacrifice hath made a way of Reconciliation and as our Mediator hath by his Blood established that new Covenant of Grace whereby through his Redemption we may be justified upon performing the Conditions of his Gospel And I see no other blame can be charged on this Doctrine unless it be that it is consistent with it self and with what was delivered by the Apostles of our Lord. CHAP. VII Praying by a Form is very rashly and injuriously charged with mocking of God IN his seventh Chapter he produceth his sixth Argument which is That for (a) Reas Acc. p. 115. Ministers who have the Gift of Prayer to perform publick Vocal Prayer by the prescribed Forms of others is to pretend to do an act of Worship and at the same time not to do it and is (b) P. 115 to mock God and deceive their own Souls 2. Now this is a very heavy Charge if it be true and can be proved but if all this shall appear to be a false Accusation and to be untrue Ch. VII it is then no little Slander and Calumny upon the Religious Worship of God Praying by a Form no mocking God and upon all those Churches of God and Pious Christians who make use of Forms in their Prayers And to make good his Charge our Author must here recal and deny what he hath so often granted That the use of Forms of Prayer are in themselves lawful and that they may be lawfully used by Ministers in some cases For if they be a mocking of God and the duty of Prayer is not really performed in the use of them but is only pretended so to be to the deceiving mens own Souls then they are certainly unlawful 3. Now his chief and yet trifling Argument to make good this very weighty and heavy Charge is this (c) P. 116 117. That the command to go and Preach requireth the Ministers exercise of his own Inventing and Composing and therefore so must the Command to make publick Prayers Now in answer to this it may be sufficient to say The nature and exercise of Prayer is sutably performed by a Form That every Duty is to be performed sutably to the nature of the Duty it self or in such a manner as may best tend to the pleasing of God and the exercising true Piety therein But in publick Prayer Religious Devotion and gracious dispositions and desires towards God are the great things to be practised and to that end the use of a Form of words in publick Service is well accommodated as I have shewed and therefore may be not only fitly but profitably used 4. And with respect to Preaching though our Author will find it a difficult task to prove that in every Instruction a Minister is bound to have new matter of Invention and Composition yet his greatest mistake is in supposing the cases of Instruction Exhortation or Preaching and of Praying to be parallel For where in instructing others in the knowledg of Religion Of the comparing Preaching and Praying it is the Ministers duty to teach them what they before understood not and to that end to use new Words that they may learn Knowledg it can never be imagined that he ought also to acquaint God in Prayer with what he before understood not And when in Exhortations to Men to make them better and to change their Tempers it may be of good use to suggest to them and urge upon them such Arguments and Considerations as before they either never thought of or at least did not duly consider the weight and force of them there is not the like reason of using frequently new words and expressions to God as if men were to put him in mind of the force of such things as he had not considered Surely nothing can be more weak than to insist on such unlike Comparisons instead of Arguments 5. But besides this he tells us that those words in Scripture which are used in commanding publick Prayer are not used concerning the reciting or reading the words of others Thus he saith when Prayer is commanded Hos 14.2 and Joel 2.17 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say and he saith (d) P. 118. He is not awar of any Text in the Old Testament where that word signifies the Recitation or repetition of Words formed by others Of the words of Scripture which enjoyn Prayer Now if this was true it would be very little or not at all to purpose unless he could prove that the using of the words of a Form is not Speaking or Saying But yet in truth notwithstanding his pretence to Critical Observations in which he is also very unhappy this very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Speak or Say is very frequently in the Old Testament used for reciting the words prescribed by others as in Gen. 32.4 Deut. 26.5 Deut. 27.14 and in many other places 6. And he tells us (e) P. 119. That in the New Testament the Precepts for Prayer are expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Pray and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Say to wit in Praying But what meaneth he Are these words never made use of for the reciting a Form of Prayer when they are the very words by which the Lords Prayer is prescribed The former (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 6.9 and both of them (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 11.2 And the former of them together with the Noun derived from the latter is used (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 26.44 to express our Saviour his Praying the third time saying the same words I might also mind our