Unlawful This Luther did for Germany and Calvin for Geneva and for the French Church whose Liturgyes are still used by them Yet I find this weighs not much with you tho' you seem to me to have little to oppose to it besides a strange fondness and passion you have entertained for the contrary and let me tell you that it is no hard matter to give a reason why the generality of the people are better pleased with such Extemporary Prayers than with Forms For can any one wonder that a prayer which people never heard before and is adapted to the Fancies and Humours of a Party with all the Advantages which Novelty gives shou'd gratifie carnal and itching Ears more than the fixt and settled prayers of a Church or that Form dictated by Christ himself To joyn in these with Devotion requires us duly to prepare our Hearts to strain and lift up our minds with much seriousness and attention or we cannot be affected by them whereas there is a pleasure and a kind of sensual delight in the novelty of the other Prayers and the tone with which they are sometimes delivered makes the Hearers imaginarily Devout tho' they come to them without taking pains to strain their minds to true Devotion But you ought to remember that Images and Relicks and Mediatory Saints had the very same effect on people long ago which made them so fond of them that they brought them into their Worship in spite of the Bishops and Pastors of the Church as you have now brought in Extemporary Prayers But 't is rare to find the generality of Men fond of what is truly Spiritual And therefore people's fondness of your peculiar way of Worship is so far from being an Argument for it as I find some of you use it that on the contrary it is a shrewd presumption that it is not from God Especially since ill people are fond of it as well as good As is manifest from many undeniable Instances which could not be so if it were Truly and of it self Spiritual 3. I would desire you to consider that nothing can generally induce our Clergy to decline these Extemporary Prayers but their Conscience and Conviction that they are not convenient in the Publick Service of God 'T is manifest that Extemporary Prayers would be much more easy to most of us and less burthensome then the Service we use you may think otherwise but assure your selves that you are mistaken And I dare appeal to those that have tryed both whether is most easy There are such both amongst You and Vs who have made the Experiment And I dare referr it to them to declare on their Consciences which of the two Services they look on to be the greater burthen to him that performs them Whatever You may think if we would Indulge our selves it were no hard matter for the meanest of Vs to pass an Extemporary Prayer on our Auditory or to turn the Heads of our Sermons into one Lastly I have one thing which I would more especially request of You that You would believe that I sincerely and heartily desire and study the good of your Souls and that I have in this Treatise endeavoured to promote it and by God's Assistance ever shall in all my Undertakings And if You had the same Apprehensions with Me You would not wonder at my concrn in this matter for how is it possible that any man that has a zeal for the purity of God's Worship should not have his Spirit moved within him to see a well-meaning people so strangely misled as to content themselves to meet together perhaps for some Years with a design to Worship God and yet hardly ever see or hear any thing of God's immmediate Apointment in their Meetings Now to my thoughts this is manifestly the case of many of You since a Man may frequent some Meetings amongst You for some Years and never hear a Prayer a Psalm or Chapter which has been immediately dictated by God and never be called on to bow his knee to God or see either Minister or People address themselves to him in that humble posture Lastly never see any body offer to Administer or desire to receive the food of Life in the Lord's-Supper These are Melancholy Reflections to me who believe that God has required these in his Worship And therefore I hope you will take it in good part that I endeavour to restore them to You. I have only to add my most earnest Prayers to God for You. And to beseech him who is the God of Mercy and Purchaser of his Church by a price Inestimable to vouchsafe his blessing to these my Endeavours for your Souls Instruction That You may reap the benefit and I the comfort of them in the great day of our Lord Jesus Christ who only is the true Teacher of Souls by his Spirit and is able to Seal the Instructions of his Ministers to Your Hearts to open the Eyes of Your Understandings and to guide You into all Truth FINIS Errata PAge 5 l. 20. for words read word pa. 13 l. 10 r. the timbrel p. 14 l. 16 r contrary p. 24 l. 22 for judge it r. judge of it p. 33 ult r. pursuance p. 39 ult Levitical p. 41 l. 15 r. omitted p. 45 l. 11 instead of Exclusive of the use of Forms r promise to furnish us with words in Prayer without the use of Sett and Premeditated Forms p 54 l. 6 r. rashness p. 72 l. 15 and 16 r. people p. 73 l. 3 r. throughly p. 83 l. 16 instead of the first of put in a semi-colon p. 97 l. 7 r. deceive p. 98 l. 25 r. Meditated p. 101 l. 11 r. Calendar p 112 l. 1 after the same r. Person p. 114 l. 16 r. in the next p. 115. l. 4 de which Ibid. p 16 for much deelare r. much more declare p. 118 l. 17 after for ic r. And that p. 120 l. 1. after and r. to p. 127 l. 1 after Scriptures a colon Ib. 3 after Supper a comma p. 131 l. 7 de are 137 l. 16 de their Ib. l. 18 r. receive p. 149 de a. p. 164 l 14. for owning r. own 169 l. 3. after table a comma * Much to this purpose might be urged out of the Rabbins but the Author thinks it fit to confine himself to Scripture See Durel and Knoxes Book of Disc. The Author's Intention is not to assert that the Scriptures require Kneeling at the Lord's-Supper but to shew that it is not contrary to the Institution of Christ or Practise of the Apostles who compare our receiving it with the Jews partaking of their Altar to which they approached with Adoration
to express our Desires in or enables us to make one 't is sufficient and we ought to be thankful 7. In confirmation of this Account of the Spirit of Prayer we may further observe 1. That no Worship is Acceptable to God that is not offer'd to Him in Spirit and Truth John iv 24 and therefore the Scripture recommends to us prayers in and by the Spirit but that praying with the Spirit doth not signifie extemporary unpremeditated prayers or exclude Forms will appear from 1 Cor. xiv 15 I will pray with the Spirit I will pray with the Vnderstanding I will sing with the Spirit I will sing with the Vnderstanding also Here we find singing with the Spirit as well as praying with it and whoever sings otherwise doth not worship God as he ought but tho' we are obliged to sing with the Spirit yet we must and ought to sing in the Congregation with a set Form of Words and therefore for the same reason tho' we pray with the Spirit we may pray by a set and prepared Form of Words The most spiritual Songs consist of a set Form of imposed Words and so may the most spiritual Prayers Praying therefore with the Spirit in this place is so far from meaning or being an Argument for the Use of extemporary unpremeditated prayers that it is rather an Argument against them For either we are obliged by it to sing to God in extemporary Hymns or we are not obliged to pray to Him in extemporary Prayers since it is Unreasonable to interpret singing with the Spirit in one sense and praying with the Spirit in a contrary 2. And to confirm this further we find the most spiritual Persons addressing themselves to God in Forms so did Moses so did David as I observed before and so did our Saviour himself on the Cross when in his Agony he repeated the first Verse of Psal. xxii in Syriack and as some believe the whole Psalm by which Act He recommendeth to us Forms of Prayer in his Dying Breath as the most proper means of expressing our condition to God and as most suitable to the Divine Majesty and therefore praying in the Spirit Ephes. vi 18 Praying in the holy Ghost Jude 20. and with the Spirit 1 Cor. xiv 15 signifie praying with Grace in our Hearts by the Assistance and Motion of the Holy Spirit And a man may as well pray with Grace in his Heart when he prays by a Form as sing with Grace in his Heart when he sings by a Form 3. We have a Promise that God's Spirit will assist us with this Grace in our Hearts but we have no Promise that He will help us to Words without the Use of Forms as will appear from Rom. viii 26 The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered those inward motions in the Heart called here groanings are that Grace in the Heart with which we ought to pray and to which the Spirit of God doth and indeed only can help us and to pray with this Grace is to pray in and with the Spirit whether we use words or no and if we do use them whether we reduce them into a Form first or pour them forth as they present themselves to our Minds but we have no Promise that the Holy Ghost will always furnish us with fit words on all occasions and therefore ought not to presume that He will 4. T is certain that he did furnish some with such words for we find both Prayers and Hymns dictated immediately by him of which we have Examples in the Hymns of the Blessed Virgin and Zacharias and in the Song or Prayer of Simeon and in Acts iv 24 But then it is manifest that this was an extraordinary Gift of God and a part of Prophecy and we may not depend on the holy Ghost for this Gift more then for any other Extraordinary Gift till it be made appear that it was to continue alwaies in the Church and to be communicated to All the Children of God Praying and singing the Praises of God are Duties incumbent on all Christians but we are no more obliged to pray Extemporary Prayers from any Example of inspired Men in Scripture than to sing Extemporary Hymns from the like Examples to which yet none I think pretend 5. 'T is very observable that even those who composed their Prayers and Hymns by immediate inspiration did not generally offer them to God in the Congregation till they had first reduced them into a Form Thus David first penned his Psalms and then delivered them to be sung 1. Chron. xvi 7 and 't is probable the Prophets 1. Cor. xiv 26 did the same for they are supposed every one to have a Psalm a Doctrine a Tongue a Revelation c. that is to have them ready and reduced into Form for the use of the Church when they came together That this is the meaning of having a Psalm c. in this place will appear very probable not only from the words which naturally import this and can hardly be otherwise interpreted but likewise from the Apostles making a difference between what these Prophets had prepared and what was revealed immediately at the time of their being together vers 30. If any thing be revealed to another that siteth by let the first hold his peace Which shews that these Psalms c. were to give place to such as were immediately inspired So far were these inspired Men from countenancing an extemporary unpremeditated way of serving God except where there was an immediate Revelation for it and so utterly void of Scripture-proof is this great principle of the Dissenters Worship that the Spirit of prayer is given to every one of the Faithfull to enable them to conceive with the Heart and express with their Tongues their necessities to God without a Form of Prayer 8. It lies therefore my Friends on your Teachers who are of this persuasion to produce plain Scripture for your principles or else to confess that you have laid aside Prayers by Forms commanded by God and practised by holy Men in Scriptures to make room for this way of Praying of Men's own invention But further that place Eccl. v. 1.2 seems to me to afford a strong Argument against such Prayers When thou goest to the House of God Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth Therefore let thy words be few It is hard to say what it is to be rash with our Mouths or hasty to utter any thing before God if it be not rashnesh to trust the expressing all our desires to such uncertain and unpremeditated words as our invention suggests unto us when we come before him which as I have shewed the Scriptures give us no promise of being supplied to us
the way of his own appointment and complain of it as dull and tedious so Mal. i. 13 Ye said also what a weariness is it and ye snuffed at it And the reason is because the way of God's appointing is always more Spiritual in respect of that which is of Man 's own Invention and therefore it cannot be so easy or agreable to the Carnal minds of Men. 4. It ought therefore to be considered by you when people complain of being dull and unaffected by meer Hearing the Word of God read whether this do not truly proceed from a Carnal and Wicked Heart estranged from the Spirit of God and whether the reason that Sermons please and affect more then a Chapter out of the Bible be not the novelty and outward Ornaments of them rather than the Spiritualness of the discourse We are sure St. Paul supposeth such as are not affected with the Words of God to be meer Natural or Carnal Men 1 Cor. ii 13 where having taken Notice of speaking Not in Words which Man's Wisdom Teacheth but which the Holy Ghost Teacheth he adds but the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God For they are foolishness to him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned From whence it clearly follows that the reason why Men do not understand or receive the things of God delivered to them in the Words of Scripture dictated by the Holy Ghost is because they are meer Natural Men and want the Spirit of God Whoever therefore is more affected or delights more in a Sermon then in a Chapter of the Bible has reason to look into his Heart and examine himself whether he have the Spirit of God Those mentioned in Scripture that had that Spirit delighted in the Law of God It was the joy of their Hearts they preferred it to all things they meditate in it Day and Night And were so far from turning it out of their Publick Assemblies that the Hearing it read was a great part of their Worship Whoever therefore lays aside this practise have reason to suspect that they want that Temper and Spirit with which those Holy Men were inspired and notwithstanding all their pretences to a more then ordinary Spiritualness and Reformation are little advanced above the Natural Men that neither receive or relish the things of God at least not as they ought I find it alledged as a Sixth pretence for not Reading the Word of God in your Meetings That a Child may read them and perform this Duty and then what need it take up the Ministers time To which there needs no other answer then that the Service of God is not less his or the less to be valued because it is easy On the contrary 't is the more sinfull to neglect it the more easy it is Ministers are not set apart for difficult things only which others cannot perform but they are to execute the Office that God has imposed on them whether it be easy or difficult As for Example God has Commanded his Ministers to Baptise In the Name of the Father c. Now to pour on Water in this Form is no such difficult thing but a Child or any else might perform it Neither is there any greater difficulty in the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper as to the Essentials of it Yet I suppose it will be granted by all that it belongs only to the Minister's Office to perform these and that they must not delegate them or any part of them to others or omit them because they are easy And that they have a quite different Sacredness Efficacy and Force when performed by a Person Ordained and Authorized to this purpose then when performed by another and the same Rule holds in offering up our Prayers and in Reading the Scriptures A Man may read them at home a Child may read them in Church but they have not the same assurance of Efficacy and a blessing as when they come from the Mouth of a Person set a-part by God's Ordinance for this purpose I make no doubt but the Experience as I have said of most Christians from what they have felt in their own Hearts in Hearing the Word of God publickly read will attest the Truth of this Now if you my Friends know and own this as I hope the generality of you do you must see the unreasonableness of this pretence If any of you do not know it you must give me leave to say that I fear it is from ignorance and not considering the Scriptures And 't is your Teachers Duty to inform you better Reading the Scripture being allowed by their Directory to be a part of God's Publick Worship We have this Rule there in express words That it is requisite that all the Canonical Books be read over in order that the people may be better acquainted with the whole Body of Scriptures Now if you can shew but one Meeting in the last Age in which this has been duly performed we will not accuse you so generally of violating God's Command in this point but if there be not one such Meeting you ought to consider how you will excuse your selves before God And I think it necessary here to observe to you how insignificant general Rules are without descending to a particular Determination of Circumstances Here we have in your Dirâ—ctory a general Rule such as it is for Reading the Scripture but for want of being particular as the Calender in our Common-Prayer-Book is I question if it yet was ever once observed or indeed that it is Practical to observe it And it is so almost in every other general Rule and therefore to leave the Service of God to be Ordered by such general Rules only is in effect to Teach people to neglect it V. These are all the Reasons that I can possibly think of or have heard urged for Your practice in this point I will not say but others may be pretended but I must profess that I do not remember to have met with them if I had I would have given them a due consideration I am perswaded that they cannot be of greater force than those I have examined And that they can never excuse You in this matter from manifest breach of God's Command in preferring Mens Inventions to his Institutions After all I must profess to You That I look on all these to be only Pretences and that the true Reason of Mens Negligence in this Duty is given us 2 Tim. iv 3 For the time will come saith the Apostle when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap up to themselves Teachers having itching Ears An itching Ear here can signifie nothing so properly as an Ear that loves Novelty and Variety Because therefore our Church gives the people little that is New in her Prayers or Reading the Scriptures but retains a Form of sound Words in the one and the plain Word of God in the other Hence
the Spirit and hinder Men from stirring up or using the gift that God has given them 2. Others of you go further and affirm that all Forms of Prayer are unlawful to Christians and that therefore it is a sin to join in a Worship where they are used or to be present at it 3. That the Minister is the mouth of the Congregation and that he only is to speak publickly to God in the behalf of the people and that they are not to join their Voices but their Hearts only with him Upon these principles you forsake our Worship and many of you think it is a sin to be so much as present at our Religious Assemblies It is of great importance therefore that you should understand what the Scriptures determine in this matter for if our Worship which you thus forsake be plainly enjoined by Scripture as I think I have made it sufficiently appear and these principles of Your Worship and Your Practice pursuant to them have no Foundation in Scripture I cannot see how You can answer your forsaking Our Assemblies to God and your own Consciences Let us then consider each of these Principles apart II. And first for that position of your Directory That the Spirit of Prayer is given to all the Children of God in some measure for enabling their Hearts to conceive and their Tongues to express convenient Desires to God I intreat you to consider what Promise or Foundation it has in Scripture I profess to you seriously That upon the strictest Enquiry I could make I never could find any such Promise made to all the Children of God in the Old or New Testaments neither did I ever meet any Dissenter that was able to shew any such Exclusive of the Use of Forms If then there be none such as we may be well assured there is not was it not too much presumption in the Compilers of your Directory to obtrude this Doctrine on the World or perswade people to depend on it and neglect the help of Forms which the Scripture prescribes and recommends to us Nay as there is no Promise for such extraordinary Assistance to all the Children of God to conceive prayer so neither is there any Command in Scripture requiring us to worship or pray to God in a conceiv'd extemporary or unpremeditated prayer or so much as an Example in a settled ordinary Congregation where it was practised If then you can shew none of these in the holy Scriptures neither Promise nor Command 't is a plain case that this Doctrine is a meer Invention of Men and the Worship built on it a Vanity in the sence of our Saviour Mark vii 7 If my design were only to confute an Adversary what I have already said were sufficient but this Spirit of Prayer is a point of such Consequence that I hope it will be both grateful and instructive to the Readers of all sorts to explain it to them and set it in as clear a light as I can which I shall do under the following Heads III. 1. First therefore I doubt not but it will be granted That whoever prayeth to God with Faith Sincerity Fervency Love Humility Conformity to God's will Vnderstanding and Decency of Expression prays Acceptably to Him and is endowed with the Spirit of Prayer and whoever prays without these does want it 2. I suppose no man of himself can attain these Graces that are requisite to make our prayers Acceptable and that therefore we must have the Assistance of Gods Spirit to beget them in us 3. I suppose that it is possible for a man to acquire by natural means an ability to express himself decently in prayer tho' he cannot so acquire Faith or any other inward Grace so that Decency of Expression is the lowest part of the Gift of Prayer and not alwaies a part of it 4. I say that one praying by a Form may have all these Qualifications and therefore his prayer may be acceptable to God and proceed from his Spirit This may be proved to the Dissenters 1. From the Assembly's Larger Catechism which acknowledges it For when the Question is put How is the Lord's Prayer to be used The Answer is The Lord's Prayer is not only for Direction as a pattern according to which we are to make other prayers but may be also used as a prayer so that it be done with Vnderstanding Faith Reverence and other Graces necessary to the right performance of the Duty of prayer 2. Many of the Psalms are as I observed before Forms of Prayer and the Dissenters make no scruple to turn these Forms of Prayers into Meetre and then sing them Line by Line after the Minister As for Example The first Verse of the fifth Psalm runs thus in the Translation they use Give ear unto my words O Lord My meditations weigh Hear my loud cry my King my God For I to theé will pray This is as much a Form of Prayer as any in the Litany and by their using it as they do they plainly practise praying by a Form And do further also allow that prayers as well as praises may be offered to God with singing and that they may repeat their Forms of prayer after the Minister With what reason then can it be said against us That a Form of Prayer sung in Verse and after the Minister's Reading it is Commendable but the same said or sung in Prose is Unlawful 5. Extemporary conceived prayers may want these spiritual qualifications of prayer as I believe will not be denied by those that contend most for them and they often are manifestly deficient being sometimes performed without Reverence or Decency of Expression and by some even without Understanding and where these qualifications are found others may be wanting The Scriptures observe That a man may make long prayers and yet have a mind dispos'd to devour Widows Houses He may want Faith Humility Fervency and Affiance in God and yet be able to pray without a Form And therefore such prayers are not always Acceptable to God 6. Therefore when God promises the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications to his people Zach. xii 10 this Promise doth not extend to enable all men who are God's Children to conceive with their Hearts and express with their Mouths convenient Desires without a Form for as I shewed before every one to whom God gives a Heart and Disposition to pray has the Spirit of Prayer and he who from this principle offers up his desires to God in a Form prays Acceptably and he that offers them without that principle tho' he do it in unpremeditated and extemporary words is rejected and therefore the Spirit of prayer is the grace the heart the disposition and ability to pray and whether it be with or without a Form such a Man's prayers are acceptable to God and 't is greatly superstitious to think or teach otherwise If God give us a heart to pray and by his providence hath provided us a Form