Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A63653
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An apology for authorized and set forms of litvrgie against the pretence of the spirit 1. for ex tempore prayer : 2. formes of private composition.
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Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing T289; ESTC R7631
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60,949
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100
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liberty of the Spirit sufficiently preserved that the publick Spirit is free That is the Church hath power upon occasion to alter and increase her Litanies By what argument shall any man make it so much as probable that the holy Ghost is injured if every private Ministers private spirit shall be guided and therefore by necessary consequence limited by the authority of the Churches publick Spirit 4. Does not the Directory that thing which is here called sect. 121 restraining of the Spirit Does it not appoint every thing but the words And after this is it not a goodly Palladium that is contended for and a princely liberty they leave unto the Spirit to be free onely in the supplying the place of a Vocabulary and a Copia verborum For as for the matter it is all there described and appointed and to those determined senses the Spirit must assist or not at all onely for the words he shall take his choise Now I desire it may be considered sadly and seriously Is it not as much injury to the Spirit to restrain his matter as to appoint his words Which is the more considerable of the two Sense or Language Matter or Words I mean when they are taken singly and separately For so they may very well be for as if men prescribe the matter onely the Spirit may cover it with severall words and expressions so if the Spirit prescribe the words I may still abound in variety of sense and preserve the liberty of my meaning we see that true in the various interpretations of the same words of Scripture So that in the greater of the two the Spirit is restrained when his matter is appointed and to make him amends for not trusting him with the matter without our directions and limitations we trust him to say what he pleases so it be to our sense to our purposes A goodly compensation surely 5. Did not Christ restrain the spirit of his Apostles sect. 122 when he taught them to pray the Lords Prayer whether his precept to his Disciples concerning it was Pray this or Pray thus Pray these words or Pray after this manner Or though it had been lesse then either and been onely a Directory for the matter still it is a thing which our Brethren in all other cases of the same nature are resolved perpetually to call a restraint Certainly then this pretended restraint is no such formidable thing These men themselves doe it by directing all of the matter and much of the manner and Christ himself did it by prescribing both the matter and the words too 6. These restraints as they are called or determinations sect. 123 of the Spirit are made by the Spirit himself For I demand when any Assembly of Divines appoint the matter of Prayers to all particular Ministers as this hath done is that appointment by the Spirit or no If no then for ought appears this Directory not being made by Gods Spirit may be an enemy to it But if this appointment be by the Spirit then the determination and limitation of the Spirit is by the Spirit himself and such indeed is every pious and prudent constitution of the Church in matters Spirituall Such as was that of Saint Paul to the Corinthians when he prescribed orders for publick Prophecying and Interpretation and speaking with Tongues The Spirit of some he so restrained that he bound them to hold their peace he permitted but two or three to speak at one meeting the rest were to keep silence though possibly six or seven might at that time have the Spirit 7. Is it not a restraint of the Spirit to sing a Psalme in sect. 124 Meeter by appointment Cleerly as much as appointing Formes of prayer or Eucharist And yet that we see done daily and no scruple made Is not this to be partiall in judgement and inconsiderate of what we doe 8. And now after all this strife what harme is there sect. 125 in restraining the Spirit in the present sense What prohibition what Law What reason or revelation is against it What inconvenience in the nature of the thing For can any man be so weak as to imagine a despite is done to the Spirit of grace when the gifts given to his Church are used regularly and by order As if prudence were no gift of Gods Spirit as if helps in Government and the ordering spirituall matters were none of those graces which Christ when he ascended up on high gave unto men But this whole matter is wholly a stranger to reason and never seen in Scripture For Divinity never knew any other vitious restraining sect. 126 the Spirit but either suppressing those holy incitements to vertue and good life which Gods Spirit ministers to us externally or internally or else a forbidding by publike authority the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments to speake such truths as God hath commanded and so taking away the liberty of prophecying The first is directly vitious in materia speciali The second is tyrannicall and Antichristian And to it persecution of true Religion is to be reduced But as for this pretended limiting or restraining the Spirit viz. by appointing a regular Forme of prayer it is so very a Chimaera that it hath no footing or foundation upon any ground where a wise man may build his confidence 9. But lastly how if the Spirit must be restrained and sect. 127 that by precept Apostolicall That calls us to a new account But if it be not true what meanes Saint Paul by saying The spirits of the Prophets must be subject to the Prophets What greater restraint then subjection If subjected then they must be ruled if ruled then limited prescribed unto and as much under restraint as the spirits of the superiour Prophets shall judge convenient I suppose by this time this Objection will trouble us no more But perhaps another will For why are not the Ministers to be left as well to sect. 128 their liberty in making their Prayers as their Sermons I answer the Church may if she will but whether she doth well or no let her consider This I am sure there is not the same reason and I feare the experience the world hath already had of it will make demonstration enough of the inconvenience But however the differences are many 1. Our Prayers offered up by the Minister are in behalf sect. 129 and in the name of the People and therefore great reason they should know beforehand what is to be presented that if they like not the message they may refuse to communicate especially since people are so divided in their opinions in their hopes and in their faiths it being a duty to refuse comunion with those prayers which they think to have in them the matter of sin or doubting Which reason on the other part ceases for the Minister being to speak from God to the people if he speaks what he ought not God can right himself however is not a partner of the sin as in
capable of improvement and an obligation to labour and that the effect of having the gift of prayer depends upon the mutuall concourse that is upon God blessing our powers and our endeavours And if this way the Spirit performes his promise sufficiently and does all that we need and all that he ties himself to he that will multiply his hopes farther then what is sufficient or what is promised may possibly deceive himself but never deceive God and make him multiply and continue miracles to justifie his phansie Better it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide as in sect. 26 all things else so in this particular Ephes. 6. 17 18. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Praying alwaies with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit The word of God is the sword of the Spirit praying in the Spirit is one way of using it indeed the onely way that he here specifies Praying in the Spirit then being the using of this Sword and this Sword being the word of God it follows evidently that praying in the spirit is praying in or according to the word of God that is in the directions rules and expresses of the Word of God that is of the holy Scriptures For we have many infirmities and we need the spirit to help as doubting coldnesse wearinesse disrelish of heavenly things indifferency and these are enough to interpret the place quoted in the Objection without tying him to make words for us to no great religious purposes when God hath done that for us in other manner then what we dreame of So that in effect praying in the Holy Ghost or with the sect. 27 spirit is nothing but prayer for such things and in such manner which God by his Spirit hath taught us in holy Scripture Holy Prayers spirituall songs so the Apostle calls one part of prayer viz. Eucharisticall or thanksgiving that is Prayers or Songs which are spirituall in materiâ And if they be called spirituall for the Efficient cause too the Holy Ghost being the Authour of them it comes all to one for therefore he is the cause and giver of them because he hath in his word revealed what things we are to pray for there also hath taught us the manner And this I plainly prove from the words of sect. 28 Saint Paul before quoted The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought In this we are infirme that we know not our owne needs nor our owne advantages when the Holy Ghost hath taught us what to aske and to aske that as we ought then he hath healed our infirmities and our ignorances in the matter and the manner then we know what to pray for as we ought then we have the grace of Prayer and the Spirit of supplication And therefore in the instance before mentioned concerning spirituall songs when the Apostle had twice enjoyn'd the use of them in order to Prayer and Preaching to instruction and to Eucharist and those to be done by the aide of Christ and Christs spirit What in * one place he calls being filled with the Spirit In the other he calls * the dwelling of the word of Christ in us richly plainly intimating to us that when we are mighty in the Scriptures full of the word of Christ then we are filled with the Spirit because the Spirit is the great Dictatour of them to us and the Remembrancer and when by such helps of Scripture we sing Hymnes to Gods honour and our mutuall comfort then we sing and give thanks in the spirit And this is evident if you consult the places and compare them And that this is for this reason called a gift and grace sect. 29 or issue of the Spirit is so evident and notorious that the speaking of an ordinary revealed truth is called in Scripture a speaking by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 8. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost For though the world could not acknowledge Jesus for the Lord without a revelation yet now that we are taught this truth by Scripture and by the preaching of the Apostles to which they were enabled by the Holy Ghost we need no revelation or Enthusiasme to confesse this truth which we are taught in our Creeds and Catechismes and this light sprang first from the immission of a ray from Gods Spirit we must for ever acknowledge him the fountaine of our light Though we coole our thirst at the mouth of the river yet we owe for our draughts to the springs and fountains from whence the waters first came though derived to us by the succession of a long current If the Holy Ghost supplies us with materials and fundamentals for our building it is then enough to denominate the whole edifice to be of him although the labour and the workmanship be ours upon another stock And this is it which the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 13. Which things also we speake not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spirituall things with spirituall The Holy Ghost teaches yet it is upon our co-operation our study and endeavour while we compare spirituall things with spirituall the Holy is said to teach us because these spirituals were of his suffestion and revelation For it is a rule of the Schoole and there is much sect. 30 reason in it Habitus infusi infunduntur per modum acquisitorum whatsoever is infused into us is in the same manner infused as other things are acquired that is step by step by humane meanes and co-operation and grace does not give us new faculties and create another nature but meliorates and improves our owne And therefore what the Greeks called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} habits the Christians used to call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} gifts because we derive assistances from above to heighten the habits and facilitate the actions in order to a more noble and supernaturall end And what Saint Paul said in the Resurrection is also true in this Question That is not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall The graces and gifts of the Spirit are postnate and are additions to art and nature God directs our counsels opens our understandings regulates our will orders our affections supplies us with objects and arguments and opportunities and revelations in scriptis and then most when we most imploy our owne endeavours God loving to blesse all the meanes and instruments of his service whether they be natural or acquisite So that now I demand Whether since the expiration sect. 31 of the age of miracles Gods spirit does not most assist us when we most endeavour and most use the meanes He that saies No discourages all men from reading the Scriptures from industry from meditation from conference from humane