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
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
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
words and a sutable degree and measure of life to accompany them wherewith to minister in Prayer and whereby the faint and weak desires of the Hearers many times are enlarged and strengthened But it can never be supposed that he who only reads a Set Form of Prayer out of a Book according to the order of the Calendar or repeats it from his memory can Pray with either such fit and sutable matter of words or can minister that sutable degree and measure of life that the Hearers require and stand in need of for where the words are not seasonable life will not join with them to make them effectual and profitable to the Hearers I know it will be hard for these who have not the inward experience of the workings of the Divine Life and Spirit in their own Souls to believe or imagine how the Speaker who is assisted to Preach or pray with the Spirit of God can have a distinct and clear feeling of the several states and conditions of the people and in that sense and feeling be enabled by the same Spirit who gave this sense to him to minister to them all that which is seasonable both for matter and life However this is abundantly known and witnessed to those who have an inward experience of life and its workings in themselves to be a truth for as in the natural body one member hath a sence of its fellow members and the more noble that one member be its sence of the other members is the more universal full and comprehensive Even so is it in the Body of Christ which is his Church and how can it be otherwise when as the Scripture saith All the single hearted and upright minded Professors of Christ are of one heart and soul as expressing a greater unity and sympathy or fellow feeling than that of the body as if to be of one Soul were more than to be of one Body for if the parts of the Body have a sence one of another much more the powers and faculties of the Soul have a discerning and sympathy one with another 6. And lastly To add no more here altho many more reasons might be brought against the using of Set Forms of Prayer the whole Superstructure dependeth upon a false and wrong bottom or foundation viz. an Opinion that immediate Inspiration and Revelation is ceased or discontinued in the Church and in and among true Christians as well as false for I dare say If they who are so zealous for using Set Forms of Prayer did but believe that Immediate Inspiration and Revelation did remain in the true Church of God and in and among true Christians this would presently end the dispute and determine the Controversie betwixt them and us for when Immediate Inspiration and Revelation was in the Church as in the Apostles daies and for some considerable time thereafter they readily grant that men then prayed and sung Psalms ex tempore without Book by the Spirit and therefore if they did now believe that such a dispensation is restored and restoring again and was never altogether lost among true Christians although much impaired and diminished by reason of the general Apostacy and prevailing power of darkness that was over the greatest part of those called Christians they would lay aside their Set Forms and wait for this Divine Gift But it were too long and unseasonable a labour in this place to prove that Immediate Revelation and Inspiration doth remain in and among all true Christians I shall therefore refer the Readers to what our Friends have writ on that subject and particularly to two Treatises of mine And withal I beseech all sober and impartial people laying aside all prejudice to weigh and consider upon what slender and weak Arguments that Opinion is built which saith That Immediate Inspiration and Revelation is ceased in and among all true Christians And above all I recommend them to the Light of Christ Jesus and the manifestation of his holy Spirit of Truth in every one of their hearts and Consciences that bears witness to every necessary Truth as they hearken to it and with their minds turned to the said Light and Spirit of Truth to read and search the Scriptures diligently in that very respect as the Noble Bereans did of old and the Lord give them understanding in that and all other necessary things I shall now proceed to Answer the most ordinary Objections that seem to have most weight for using Set Forms of Prayer whether in the Church or in private 1. It is Objected That Set Forms of Prayer and Blessing the People were used in the Iewish Church under the Law as Numb 10. 35. when the Ark set forward Moses commonly said Arise O God let thine Enemies be scattered let them also that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said Return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel And Numb 6. 23. Aaron and his Sons were on this wise to bless the people saying The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine favourably on thee And Joel the Prophet taught the People to pray saying Spare thy People O Lord give not thy Heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people Where is their God Ioel 2. 17. And yet under the Law people had the Spirit of God and were to pray by the Spirit and Moses and Aaron who were to use these Forms of Prayer and Blessing were endued wiih a great measure of the Spirit and able enough to have conceived other Forms of Prayer and Blessing Ans. From their using Set Forms of Prayer and Blessing under the Law to argue for the use of them under the Gospel will not hold good for not only Sacrifices and Offerings of Beasts but many other things were both commanded and allowed under the Law which are not under the Gospel And although Moses and Aaron and many others in those daies had great plenty of the Spirit yet for the sake of the people who generally were weak and rude they were to go along with them in those Rudiments No doubt Moses and the Prophets saw to the substance and end of those Shadows and Figures and knew well enough that the blood of Bulls and Goats could not wash or purifie the Conscience and yet because of the general dispensation of the Law which was to continue until the fulness of time wherein Christ should be revealed they were to remain in the practise of these things which were afterwards to be abolished And though under the Law some Forms of Prayer and Blessing the People were to be used yet they were but few and very short and such as did proceed from the Spirit of God the matter and words of such Forms seem to carry in them some extraordinary Majesty or Glory and to have some deep and profound signification and force with them more than ordinary as we know some Scripture words and
in the Preachings and Prayers of the Lords Servants that stand on Record far surpassing all the Eloquence that either the Masters or Disciples of that artificial Eloquence so much admired in the World ever arrived or ever can arrive at meerly as such And likewise the same Argument may be retorted in respect of using any words at all in Prayer whether extempore or by Set Forms because to speak properly God is not moved by any words and hath need of them who knoweth all oue most secret Thoughts and Desires without words And if it be said that words are used to Men because they have a leisure to excite their affections then I say and variety of words with new matter as the Heart of Man conceiveth them by the help of the Spirit hath the like service and that more effectually as abundant experience doth prove then Set Forms of Prayer read out of a Book especially when the Reading is accounted Prayer whereof we find no instance in Scripture that ever at any time Reading was accounted Prayer though Prayer of the Heart and Affection may and oft doth follow and accompany serious Reading and Hearing 11. They Object That Solomon forbids men to be rash with their mouth or to let their Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God saith he is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few Answ. But he doth not conclude therefore let thy Prayer be in a Set Form of Words For here only he reproveth vain Repetitions and the Pharisaical Spirit which thought to be heard for their much speaking as Christ did also reprove the same And certainly Solomon was far from forbidding all extemporary Prayer in these words Eccles. 5. 2. Which may very well be conceived in few words as well as marry for he used it himself at the Dedication of the Temple as at other times although I shall willingly grant that ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit where the mind of man irreverently rambleth and wandreth into airy Imaginations is here and every where else forbidden in Scripture And wheras some also except against ex tempore Prayer as being monstrous like because of the smalness or shortness of time betwixt the conception and birth of that kind of Prayers however this argument may be used against ex tempore Praying without the Spirit that can have no place against Praying by the Spirit unless such Objectors will also cry out against the ex tempore Prayers made by the Prophets and Apostles of old as being monstrous or Monsters on that account but I hope they will be more sober And tho in some respect the time be very short as perhaps a moment or instant betwixt the conception and birth of Prayer as to the words or expressions yet the Substance and Root of Prayer wherein the very Essence and Life of true Prayer doth chiefly consist is long time conceived in the Soul before its outward Birth or Expression in the Mouth and is a constant abiding thing in the Soul. 12. Many who pretend to pray by the Spirit and have used or do as yet use ex tempore Prayer discover many weaknesses in those Prayers as vain Repetitions impertinent Sayings light and airy Phrases and unsound Matter and Expressions to the causing many People to abhor the Sacrifices rather than to be piously and religiously affected with those Prayers And seeing few if any have a Spiritual Gift of Praying ex tempore with words conceived by the help of the Spirit and that yet publick Prayers in Congregations and Assemblies of People are necessary is it not better to use Set Forms of Prayer in sound Words then to adventure on ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit Answ. As for all these weaknesses which Men have discovered or may discover in ex tempore Praying they reflect as is said upon the Men but not upon the Principle And when most of these Weaknesses have appeared it is in Men who pray without any pretence unto immediate Inspiration of the Spirit or belief that they have it and such Men I confess should lay aside their ex tempore Praying and wait upon the Spirit of God to receive help from him to pray first believing that it is to be received as it is waited for And these also who pretend to pray by the Spirit and yet do nothing so but are meerly guided by their floating and airy Fancies and Imaginations should desist from such a practice and come with silence both outward and inward and in the same wait for the true Spirit of Prayer to help their infirmities whether with Sighs and Groans that cannot be expressed or with distinct and audible expressions But surely these who indeed pray by the Spirit keeping close and chastly to the same throughout from first to last bewray none of these Weaknesses and though they may use Repetitions yet if the Spirit move to use them and that there be any vertue or savour of Life in them they are not vain but profitable and like the warbling Notes repeated Sounds of a skilful Musician in a musical Descant which rendred the method more sweet and pleasing and such serious grave and weighty Repetitions we find oft in the Psalms of David And these also who use Set Forms of Prayer have need that they use not vain Repetitions for some who have heard these Set Forms have been as much disgusted and offended with the many Repetitions they find there as others with those elsewhere Now it may at times happen that a man may be partly assisted and helped by the Holy Spirit to conceive words of Prayer and good and servent Affections and yet through Humane Weakness may discover some frailty in his Prayer who yet is not altogether to be rejected or discouraged But great care ought to be had by all who make mention of the Name of the Lord that they bring forth nothing but that which is pure and without mixture even a pure Offering and Sacrifice unto the Lord who is pure And suppose few or none in many places or Congregations have the Spiritual Gift of praying ex tempore by the Spirit helping them to conceive the words of Prayer yet there is no need of praying by a Set Form for if the Principle and Doctrine of Truth were once received and believed that God giveth his assistance by his Spirit to all who desire it and whom he thinks worthy of it or fit to bestow it on for the edification of others to pray ex tempore with words truly edifying quickening and refreshing as People did but wait a little time in sincerity for such a Divine Gift it would be given to a sufficient number of them and until it be given it is better to pray with affection of Heart though without all words and wait in silence for a further gift and measure of the Spirit then to be rash or hasty to pray without the Spirit either ex tempore or in a Set Form. And to help the weaknesses of many who cannot bear well long or much silence such as are serious and best affected as they find a freedom and liberty in the Lord may read unto the People or unto their Families the Holy Scriptures which was an ancient custom in the Primitive Church but that Reading is not to be used as Prayer or Worship but only as a mean to excite Prayer and good Affections and Defires in them as it pleaseth the Lord to concur and give his Blessing unto the same and also for Information and Doctrine What is there said all along in this Treatise of Praying by the Spirit helping to conceive the words of Prayer is also to be understood of Singing and Praising God with a Psalm and the Reasons and Arguments drawn from Scripture for the one serve equally for the other for all Singing and Praising with a Psalm or Psalms in Gospel times was a Spiritual Gift as is clear in the Church of Corinth when some had a Psalm to utter or express in words and others went along with them in Unity of Spirit making Melody in the Heart though not a◠audible noise pronouncing the same words as some had a Doctrin and some a Revelation some an Interpretation 1 Cor. 14. 26. THE END ☞
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
working of the Holy Spirit which may have its visible Effects even the shedding of Tears in him that Preacheth or Prayeth and that more or less abundantly yet the hypocritical show and affection of such a thing without the reality thereof is loathsome and abominable and as great a Transgression against the Law of Heaven as false and counterfeit Money or Coin is against any Earthly Law And yet such hypocritical Tears and Flashes of fained Devotion kindled up by Sparks of their own raising abounding among too many of that Tribe and Generation as if they were the effects of Gods Holy Spirit when alass it is far the contrary But to such as have any measure of Sobriety and Ingenuity among them I propose this Question to be answered in plainness and simplicity by them 1. How can they pretend to pray by the Spirit in words and yet they deny all immediate Inspiration and Revelation which alone guided and assisted those who prayed by the Spirit in words recorded in the Holy Scriptures 2. By what Rule or Touchstone do they know when they are assisted and helped by the Spirtt to pray in words and when not seeing they deny the Holy Spirit as he doth inwardly reveal himself in Mens Hearts to be the rule in any case 3. When they are not moved by the Holy Spirit and that they do not find themselves so moved as to pray in words whether in that case seeing they will needs pray as well when they want the Spirits help as when they have it and that they plead Natural Men who have not the Spirit of God may be true Ministers of Christ and may and ought lawfully to Preach and Pray if they have an outward Call from them they should not rather use the set Forms of Prayer than their own bare invention and wandring imagination for here their great Argument against set Forms of Prayer hath no place to wit the limiting or stinting the Spirit of God because he who prayeth in words without the Spirit whether by a Book or ex tempore without a Book is in one and the same case if none of them pray by the Spirit for he who hath not the Spirit cannot properly be said to limit or stint it But to this I know they will reply that natural and unconverted men though they have not the Grace of the Holy Spirit to sanctifie and saye them yet they have a Gift of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit that may be useful and edifying to the Church they have Gratia gratis data as they call it but not Gratia gratum faciens i. e. Grace freely given them but not Grace rendring them acceptable unto God and for this they give the instance or Example of Balaam To this I answer this distinction used so much of Gratia gratis data and Gratia gratium faciens hath not any warrant from Scripture but is borrowed in express words from popish School-men and Jesuits whom at other times they call Locusts Come out of the bottomless Pit. And as for Balaam it was somewhat an extraordinary case whereby God shewed his mighty Power that he had over his Spirit to cause him to Prophecy good things concerning Israel contrary to his own inclinations and to bless instead of cursing them but an extraordinary Example is not to be made a Rule or President unto us And indeed they have but a sad pattern of him whom rather they follow and imitate for most part in loving and taking the wages of Unrighteousness then in Prophecying or speaking by the Spirit of God as he did at these few extraordinary times And though he prophesied some words by the Spirit yet we do not read that ever God made him the Mouth of the Congregation to pray by the Spirit which is the present case And besides though he Prophesied twice or thrice by the Spirit of God which was extorted from him contrary to his own evil mind and inclination yet he was no true Prophet of God but beareth the infamous mark of a false Prophet to this day and we do not read that ever any one Soul was converted to God by his Prophecying or Ministry God can command the Devils if he please to confess to Christ as some of them did of old which yet is no president for wicked men in whom the Devil rules to Preach and Pray in the Church Now whereas they say Men may have a Gift of Prayer to use it in the Church from the Spirit of God and yet be not sanctified by the Spirit I ask them Is it such a Gift as can secure them from speaking impertinent and unsound words contrary to the truth if yea then they have an infallible Gift which seeing they will not grant unto themselves no more will they unto these others And if it cannot secure them from unsound and impertinent words but leaves them at liberty as much to use unfound words as sound and that the corruption of their Hearts who are but meer Natural Men will soon cast the Ballance and byass them rather to use the unsound words than the sound Is it not more safe in that case at least the less inconveniency of the two rather to be tied and limited to use 2 form of sound words then that their corrupt and unrenewed Hearts However so much they imagine it is to be helped with an unsanctified Gift of an abused Eloquence should be left at liberty to speak unto God and utter before him whatever it pleaseth But if we shall search to the bottom what this Spiritual common Gift of the Spirit is we shall find it to be no other but some meer Natural Gift of Memory Elocution and a ready or quick Fancy and Imagination which many Heathenish Idolatrous Priests have had as much as any of them improved with some acquired Arts of Grammar Logick and Rhetorick and words of Scripture abused and misapplied by them and that which crowns all some more than ordinary degree of confidence that when they are thus furnished and can or do Preach and Pray by those meer natural and artificial helps at best to call them and baptize them into the name of a Spiritual Gift or the Spirits help and assistance But leaving these men and their ex tempore praying without the Spirit which thus far I found my very Soul and Spirit concerned to discover in true love and compassion to their abused and betrayed Hearers and Followers and to them also if they can receive it I shall return to plead a little further for the true and right manner of praying in words by the Spirit as he is pleased to give assistance both in the conceiving and utterance without any set Form either read out of a Book or repeated from the Memory without a Book Because 3. This way of Praying doth alone and only answer to the liberty of the Spirit which is free even the Holy Spirit of Truth and neither will nor can be limitted and who seek to limit
be active and fruitful both to himself and others also It 's true the same Paul speaketh of a case wherein the Spirit Prayeth but the Understanding is unfruitful as it happened at times when a man was so inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit that he spake in an unknown Tongue as appeareth from 1 Cor. 14. 13. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown Tongue pray that he may interpret And in this case it is like that as the Soul's Understanding was unfruitful so it was unactive and was used only by the Spirit as a passive Instrument like a Pen in the Hand of a ready Writer As when the outward Ear of a man receiveth the Voice of a strange Language which he doth not understand There are other cases also wherein the Understanding and Rational Faculties of man may be laid aside and not used by the Spirit of God when he Immediately Inspireth him as when the highest and most noble Faculty of a Man's Soul or Mind is excited and wholly imployed and exercised by the Spirit which by some is called the Spirit of the Mind by others the Visual or Intentive Faculty of the Soul which seeth God as he is pleased to reveal himself and whereby a man hath a sense or perception of Divine or Spiritual things without any use or exercise of his Understanding Reason or Imagination as in a Spiritual Rapture and extasie But for most part the Understanding and Reason was used and imployed yea and the Memory also by the Prophets and Apostles so as to remember what they had read or heard and seasonably to apply it to the present occasion when they spoke or writ by Immediate Revelation or Inspiration For Immediate Revelation or Inspiration doth not exclude the use of means whether inward or outward it only implyeth a most near and close or intimate conjunction and union of the Spirits Operation with the Soul in the use of means as well as when they are not so used And Solomon who is generally acknowledged to have writ both the Books of the Ecclesiastes and Proverbs by Divine Immediate Inspiration and Revelation yet he saith Eccles. 12. 10. He sought to find out acceptable words c. So that the Spirit of God made use of that Faculty or Ability of his Soul which is called by Logicians Invention as well as his Judgment not that he had any trouble or difficulty to find out those acceptable words but the Spirit making his Understanding Fruitful with plenty of matter and seasonable and suitable Words he freely and without any trouble or disquiet of his mind used such acceptable words 6. It is Objected That even they who pray ex empore by the Spirit in a Congregation of People do stint or limit the Spirit in the Hearers and their Understandings and Attensions to consider what they who speak say no less than if they heard a Set Form of Prayer read unto them Answ. This is altogether denyed for first the Spirit of God in one can never be thought to stint the same Spirit or limit the operation thereof in another or many because the Spirit is the same in both and doth ever accord and agree with it self in all its operations and what it moveth the Speaker to Speak it moveth and inclineth the Hearers to consider and where true Unity is witnessed with one inward voice and cry of their Hearts they speak the same things unto God their Hearts at every Sentence saying Amen to what they feel and perceive to come from the Spirit of God in them who speak Nor doth it hinder the understanding and attention of the Hearers in being exercised towards the Spirit 's workings and openings in themselves For many yea and most times what the Spirit speaks through one doth excite the understandings of the Hearers into more faithfulness so that they have more opened and revealed unto them by the Spirit than what the Speakers words did import as oft also the like falleth out in Discoursing upon a natural subject where the words do signifie more to some Hearer than they do to the Speaker himself exciting clearer and fuller notions or ideas of Truth in him And thus even natural arts have been perfected when the first Inventers had but some small beginnings others by those beginnings have been excited to find out more perfect things as the bringing of the first words of a Sentence to a man's Memory which he hath forgot doth oft excite his Memory to remember the whole Sentence Nor is the Mind of Man so strait or narrow but it can well enough attend to what another Man sayeth in Preaching or Prayer and also to what God inwardly doth suggest or reveal unto him And the liberty of the Hearers understandings and Spirits is manifest in this also that after one has Prayed in words if the same Spirit reveal any thing to be spoken in Preaching or Prayer by any of the Hearers he is free to do it without giving any offence which was the order prescribed by Paul to the Church of Corinth 7. It is Objected That set Forms of Prayer are most for the edifications of the People who by often hearing of the same Prayer can commit it to Memory and so it passeth to the Understanding and remaineth with them whereas extemporary Prayers pass away for most part as a Sound and are little remembred Answ. This also is altogether denyed viz. That set Forms of Prayer are most for the edification of the People for admitting or supposing that the Hearers commonly by oft hearing these set Forms had them all perfect in their Memory yet it will not follow that they have a true understanding of them for men may and do remember many things which they do not understand But again either these set Forms of Prayer are few or many if few they cannot give a large understanding to the People if many they cannot be well remembred by them and if they were as many as would fill many Volumns they cannot give so great occasion to edifie and inform the understanding as these Prayers which proceed ex tempore by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Holy men which must needs be many more and containing much more matter than the greatest Book of ever so many set Forms of Prayer can For on this account it is as I reckon why men are not tyed to set Forms of Preaching but are allowed freely to exercise their gift because that is more edifying to the People than set Forms to Preach by would be unto them And the same reason is as good concerning Praying as Preaching And tho words of ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit pass away as an empty transient sound yet by and with the help of the Spirit both in speakers and hearers they take impression both upon the understanding and memory of People who are made tender and sensible And tho all or most of the words spoke be not remembred yet if they have