according to the Directory So here it doth not follow that we may not use the words of either of the Evangelists but on the contrary that we may indifferently use the words of either and so may pray either in the form of words recorded by the Evangelist Matthew or else according to this form in the text We think it not unlawfull but expedient in the celebration of the Lords Supper to retain the words of some of the Evangelists or of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11. upon that occasion And so I see no sufficient reason but we may and that it is expedient to use Christs owne words either at his first or second delivery of it either as recorded by one or the other Evangelist And lastly who knowes but Jesus Christ speaking Syriack the language then commonly used by the Jewes might expresse himselfe in the same Syriack words at both times and yet the Evangelists render the same diversly in another tongue keeping still the same sense as the same Greek words may be truly translated and yet rendred in English in severall or diverse words but all to the same sense Obj. But it is our duty to pray in the Spirit in the holy Ghost and so as the holy Spirit immediately moves us or suggests to us for matter and words and method and so we are not to be tied to any form of prayer Possibly this was and might be used for a time namely till Christ was glorified and the holy Ghost given as Johns form might last till Jesus Christ gave a new one so this form of prayer might be of use untill the coming down of the holy Ghost to teach Christians to pray of themselves without this or any other form Ans To this Objection I say three things 1. That we are now to pray in the holy Ghost in a right sense but not in the sense and manner above alleadged And so to say no more did those before Christs coming 2. That we may truly pray in the Spirit according to our duty although we use the Lords Prayer 3. The coming of the holy Ghost hath not taken away the Lords Prayer but that notwithstanding it may be used in the prayers of the Church and her Members until Christ come again Of the first All Christians 't is true must pray in the Spirit as all Ministers of Christ are to preach in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit and in words which the holy Ghost teacheth and yet this hinders not but we may and must study and premeditate for our Sermons not alway expecting extraordinary supplies from the holy Ghost so as that it should be given us always in that houre what to preach and it should not be we that preach or speak but the holy Ghost in us The holy Ghost hath made known to us the minde of God in the Scriptures we are to study them and the matters contained in them and to preach the Word of God Scripture-truthes plainly and affectionately as those who have found favour to be taught of God to have our understandings opened to understand the Scriptures to have our wills bowed to Gods revealed will and our affections warmed with love to the truth and zeale for it and as those who have in themselves experimented those things which they declare unto others Besides Ministers may and ought to read the holy Scriptures and in so doing although for the present they are tied unto words yet this doth in no wise quench the Spirit the Scriptures themselves being dictated by the Spirit so when we pray we are to pray in the Spirit that is for such things and in such a manner as the holy Ghost teacheth in the Scriptures of truth we are to pray in faith to come to God in Christs name merits mediation trusting to be heard and answered for Christs sake with earnestnesse and importunity and so with such sighs and groans which are unutterable which cannot sufficiently be expressed in words 2. As Believers before Christ particularly Moses and Aaron had the Spirit and his help and assistance in prayer so far as was requisite notwithstanding they sometimes used prescribed forms of Gods own inditing appointing And as Iesus Christ himself prayed in the spirit when he prayed in the words of David Psal 22.1 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So those that are Christs may pray also in the spirit in the using the prayer of Christ that being a Prayer for matter method words composed by him who had the Spirit without measure recorded in the very form of a Prayer and with this preface When ye pray say c. by the holy Ghost that is by the Evangelist moved and assisted infallibly by the holy Ghost If that place be urged 1 Cor. 14.15 I will pray with the spirit and with understanding also I answer it followes I will sing with the Spirit and with understanding also So that if the former part could possibly with any good reason be expounded so as to debarre us from the use of the Lords prayer the latter will exclude Davids and all Scripture-Psalmes too out of the Church But the sense and meaning of that place is of another importance as appeares by the context and that may seem to be this I will not make use of the extraordinary gift of the Spirit inabling me to speak in an unknown or strange language either in praying to or praising of God in the Church where it is not understood by the unlearned and therefore cannot be to edification My own spirit or I may indeed pray according to the inward man and make use outwardly of the gift of Tongues that gift of the holy Ghost in praying but I make no use of my understanding to the benefit of others I resolve therefore so to pray and so to sing as I may be understood by others even as if I had no such gift of Tongues as a man would pray that hath not that gift of tongues which is an extraordinary gift of the Spirit 3. I come to my third Proposition and that is to prove that the coming of the holy Ghost doth not take away the use of the Lords Prayer as a Prayer And were it so as is presumed in the Objection that it was given onely for that time untill the coming of the holy Ghost and that it was out of date in the day of Pentecost even this Evangelical form of prayer like the legall observations I say were it so then the use of the Lords Prayer should cease both as a pattern and as a form of prayer it should neither be any more since Pentecost a Directory or Liturgy But the truth is that the promise of the holy Ghost to teach Christians to pray and the gift of the holy Ghost so promised doth not necessarily take away all helps or directions from Christ or from the Scriptures of the Prophets so that they should thenceforth be void and of none effect to all intents and
Dominicam idcirco mox post precem dicimus quòd nos Apostolorum fuit ut ad ipsam solummodò orationem oblationis hostiam consecrarent Greg. Epist lib. 7. Epist 63. And to say the truth I have not read or heard that ever any of the Fathers or Councils judged it either unlawfull or inexpedient to use the Lords Prayer for a Prayer And now Sir having by this time I suppose sufficiently tried if not tired your patience in detaining you so long a spectator of our contests with this half doZen of errors I shall adde no more but desiring that this Epistle may remain as a publique acknowledgement or expresse of gratitude for those Respects and Favours wherewith you have been pleased to oblige our Brackley-society I shall onely bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus for you that you may be the blessed of the Lord and your off-spring with you and particularly sith you are one who can say Amen to the Prayer of Moses for Levi Deut. 33.11 and to the Prayer of Christ Mat. 6.9 c. and Luke 11.1 2 c. that you may beare a part in the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. Sir this is and shall be the heartie prayer of Your very humble Servant in the Lord Tho Hodges Decem. 1. 1655. A TREATISE OF PRAYER And particularly An Apology for the use of the Lords Prayer On LUKE 11.1 2. And it came to passe that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples And he said unto him when ye pray say Our Father c. GOd having but one Son made him a Minister of the Circumcision that is he ordained him a preacher of the truth to his own people the Jewes This man was not meerely as other Priests taken out from amongst men but that in all things he might have the preheminence he was taken from amidst the persons of the ever blessed Trinity to deale in things pertaining unto God And now being made an Officer in the Church it behoved him to wait on his office and to fulfill his Ministry which he had received of the Lord. And accordingly he did he gave himselfe continually to Prayer and to the Ministry of the word and so he became an example and pattern to his Apostles which they did follow Acts 6.4 and to all Ministers that come after that they should tread in his steps And upon occasion of his frequent going to prayer at a certain time when he had been about that holy performance one of his Disciples whether one of the Apostles for they were all called Disciples or one of the seventy Disciples or some other of his followers I determine not but one of them desires of him to teach them to pray as John Baptist had taught his Disciples It may seem either that this Disciple was not present at our Saviours Sermon on the Mount wherein as you have it Mat. 6.9 he taught his Disciples and in them all Christians to pray after this manner Our Father c. or else that he did not apprehend our Lords meaning at that his first delivery of this form of Prayer but took it for a model or pattern of Prayer onely And as probably the chief Masters or Rabbies amongst the Pharisees had framed certain formes of prayer for their Disciples and John the Baptist had given his a forme of prayer suitable likely to their present condition wherein it may be one great request was that the Messiah whom John preached and they expected and longed for might suddenly come into his Temple So this Disciple prayeth Christ to prescribe his Schollars and followers a form also both as a badge and cognizance of being his Disciples and as a help and furtherance to them in their devotions Possibly the Liturgy of the Scribes and Pharisees might now be leavened with evil as well as their Sermons Observable it is that our Saviour sometime adviseth on this wise saying the Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chaire whatsoever they say unto you that observe and do but we never finde that he counselled to pray their prayers And again it may be that the form which John Baptist the Lord Christ his Harbinger taught his Disciples to prepare the way for Christ was not sufficiently accommodated or fitted to the condition of them who believed him already come followed him professed Faith in him and were ready to or actually did preach him Upon these or such like considerations this Disciple might make this motion to our Saviour saying Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples and occasion our Lord more plainly and fully to expresse himself concerning the use of that form of prayer formerly delivered now not to say as before After this manner pray yee but when ye pray say Our Father c. It is the saying of learned Mr. Mede As the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh because the thing was established by God so the Lords Prayer was twice delivered that we might not scruple the using but know it for a truth that Jesus Christ did recommend it to his Church to be used as a forme of prayer and not a patterne of prayer onely Let this serve for the occasion and scope of the words There are three observations which I shall raise and prosecute in part in my treating on this text 1. Gods Children or People or right Christians are a praying generation 2. It is lawfull to use a Form of Prayer 3. It is lawful to use this Form the Lords Prayer for a Prayer I. Of the first Gods Children or right Christians are a praying generation That John the Baptist the Elijah who was for to come was also noted for prayer I gather hence because 't is said that hee taught his Disciples to pray And that they viz. his Schollers or Disciples learnt this lesson and practised this duty seems implied in the same phrase And as for Christ himself the onely begotten Son of God and his Disciples the adopted children of God that they were men of many prayers those who much frequented and highly valued this Ordinance the very words of the text import or at least insinuate From these premises I inferre my first conclusion and ground my following discourse thereupon I shall endeavour to shew what Prayer is That all men ought to pray That the children of Men as well as the children of God That very Heathens without the pale of the Church and profane or scandalous Persons Formalists and Hypocrits within do sometimes pray That Gods own People his dear Children or right Christians are most frequent and most excellent at prayer They take the most pains about it and the greatest pleasure in it Prayer is a making of our requests known unto God It is an offering up of the first born of our soules i. e. of our desires unto God To pray well there is nothing required
saith one but to desire well Senhault ex Aug. Nature and Scripture both oblige and prompt men to pray Prayer is a duty which all men owe to God a duty whereby we acknowledge our continuall dependance upon him his fulnesse self-sufficiency and all-sufficiency and our own emptinesse and necessity He is our Soveraign Lord and we are his Subjects and this homage and tribute we owe him we hold all of him and this quit-rent this pepper-corn we are bound to pay him It is not Gods knowing all things the very thoughts and desires of our hearts long before so that hee needs not that any man should tell him in prayer it is not the irrevocableness of Gods decrees that our prayers cannot change them or him It is not mans inability naturally to ask aright It is neither Gods perfections nor Mans imperfections that do absolve men from this duty Again no mans piety can exempt him nor can any mans impiety excuse him from it And lastly there is none so rich but he must and none so poore but he may offer unto God this morning and evening this daily sacrifice God the Lord and master of this great house the world doth not allow the Israelite to take the bread upon his table nor the Canaanite to gather the crums under the table without first asking his leave or giving him thanks Prayer is the voyce of nature 't is her strugling and striving to be rid of her burden Meere naturall men yea very Heathens when they are in distresse will call upon their gods though very stocks and stones If a man cannot pray let him goe to Sea and in a storme Ionahs heathen Marriners will teach him to call upon his God Afflictions necessities will drive men generally unto Prayer for relief and succour And yet because many call upon false gods or upon the true God in a false manner either not praying constantly or not in faith and with good Affections or asking things not convenient instead of an egge a Scorpion or if good things yet to an evill end viz. That what they get by Prayer they may consume on their lusts Therefore the Holy Ghost in the Scripture brands so many for men that call not upon God And the very truth is were it not to stop the mouth of naturall conscience or to get or keep a name of being religious in the world or that hereby they thinke to merit Gods favour or countenance so far as to be blessed in this life or to hire or bribe God the Judge of all the world not to doe right i. e. not to punish them in the world to come I say that were it not for some one or more of these causes I believe that God who is a God hearing prayers would have none to heare either from meere Heathens or unregerate Christians his doors would be empty of these clients these Suitors would not come at him They goe not to Prayer with so much chearfulnes as some go to prison as others to execution they come unwillingly they are detained before the Lord like Doeg with much wearinesse like a sick Stomach at a full table they are glad when the duty is done and they again at liberty like an Apprentice that is freed from his master These things therefore considered it is no wonder that God delights not in their Prayers Quo modo te audiri à Deo postulas ùn tu ipse non audias Cyp. de Orat. Dom. who delight not at all in the duty themselves How should God take pleasure in those Prayers which those that make them scarce heare or mind themselves and are glad when they have rid their hands of them and which they would never bestow a look after but meerly for ease and advantage But is this the manner of the people of God of the Disciples of Christ Are the children of God as blame-worthy as faulty in this matter as the children of men If I should say this I should verily be guilty of rash and false judgment thus to accuse and condemn wrongfully the generation of the Righteous for they are men and women of another temper frame manner of spirit and carriage in their addresses unto the most high God in Prayer These are they that account Prayer their especiall priviledge that make it their daily exercise that looke on their incomes by Prayer as their best revenues These go to Prayer as a Favourite to Court to see and wait on his Soveraigne and whole face he sees as an Angell of God These go to Prayer with delight and have more Solid joy therein than the voluptuous man hath in all his sports and pleasures These go to this duty as an hungry man to a meale to a feast expecting to have their Soules satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse Unregenerate men at best go to it but as to the taking of Physick as to a potion which they would never take but for meer necessity but for their healths sake Lastly these go to Prayer as a trades-man into his shop to meet with a good customer as a merchant to the Exchange to get a bargaine as the merchant in the Parable goes to the field wherein was the pearle of price To make all this appeare let me instance in two or three both of the Old and of the New Testament for both they that went before Christ and they that followed after him cryed Hosanna or save us we pray thee I mean they were much taken yea much taken up with this holy performance I le instance first in David a man after Gods own heart he made Prayer his Cordiall in all his troubles and afflictions Psal 42.7 8 9 10. Psal 55.16 17. his Castle to retire unto from the face of his enemies Psal 109.4 They are my adversaries but I give my self unto prayer as Luther used to say of later daies when he was ill dealt withall by men Well I le tell God of it When they that sate in the gate i. e. Judges and Rulers spake against David and when the drunkards made songs of him what doth he doe but fall to his prayers As for me saith he Psal 69.12 13. my prayer is unto thee O Lord. I dare say he esteemed it more honour to lye prostrate at the Throne of Gods grace praying than they could do to sit on the bench on the throne of iniquity to censure to judge him And his meditations i. e. his prayers I am confident were sweeter to him than the drunkards cups and songs were or could be to them The value he set on prayer ye may guesse from hence that he layes up a prayer he leaves a prayer for his son Solomon as well as any other treasure whatsoever Psal 72. and in that Psalm or Prayer he layes a Foundation and Prophecy of the greatnesse of Solomons Kingdome saying The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Seba and Sheba shall offer gifts If you aske
purposes about or concerning Prayer If the promise of the teaching of the holy Ghost if those Scriptures Ye have an anointing that teacheth you all things and when he comes he shall lead you into all truth doth not discharge us from the use of mens teaching us and preaching unto us and from our own reading the holy Scriptures the doctrine of the Prophets of our Saviour Christ of his Apostles no more doth the other promise of the spirit of Prayer take away all use of Scripture-prayers especially of our Lords Prayer The promise of baptizing with the holy Ghost when it was fulfilled did not make void or take away Baptisme of water no more doth the promise of the holy Ghost to help us to pray and in prayer take away the use of the Lords Prayer It was the work of the holy Ghost to teach and to help Christians to offer up this Prayer and all other their prayers in the name merits and mediation of Jesus Christ to stir up in them good and holy desires agreeable to the requests or petitions continued in this prayer and to descend to many particular desires and petitions and to expresse those desires in proper words and significant expressions all which desires were summarily comprehended in the Petitions and words or expressions of the Lords prayer I say this was the office and work of the holy Ghost which doth in no wise take away all lawfull use of the Lords prayer as a prayer For surely the holy Spirit will not therefore refuse to assist us when we pray this prayer because it is a prayer made by Jesus Christ and registred in the holy Scriptures written by those who were full of and moved by the holy Ghost in that work Nor doe I believe that God the holy Ghost who is the God of Order and not of Confusion will suggest or infuse into us such desires as shall necessarily turn us out of the Lords prayer whilest we are using it in a right manner It is not probable that the holy Spirit will turn us out of the road wherein the Sonne appointed us to goe to the Father And I pray what desires are there that are holy just and good such are all the desires of which the holy Ghost is authour but are comprehended in this prayer Doubtlesse as the Spirit of the Prophets in the Apostles dayes was subject to the Prophets so t is no disparagement to the spirit of prayer which Christians have in these dayes to be regulated by the spirit of prayer which was in Christ and so consequently by that forme which he hath left us Must the whole congregation be tyed up to the forme of the speaker whether Minister or other in prayer and may he in no wise be guided by Christs Prayer Beloved brethren whilst ye so judge are ye not partiall in your selves and to your selves If it be asked what 's the reason that when we have been praying a long time either according to a premeditated forme or a conceived prayer or in a mixt way betwixt both for the things contained in the Lord prayer we yet conclude our prayers with the Lords prayer Is not this a vaine repetition Answ For as much as when we have prayed our best we may have failed in something our prayer may have been defective imperfect It is not therefore vaine but to purpose and very reasonable to rehearse that prayer wherein is nothing defective nothing superfluous nothing out of its due place and order Nor is this an Innovation it was the practice of the antient Church Quam totâ—m pâ—titionem fere omnis Ecclesia Dominica oratione concludit if we will believe Austin in his 59. Epistle q. 5. where he tells that the Church did generally conclude their prayers and blessings at the consecration and distribution of the Elements at the Lords Supper with the Lords Prayer And it hath been observed that they who wholly omit or disuse the Lords Prayer as a prayer doe seldome follow the Lord Christ fully in it as a patterne namely in this particular they seldome plead with God for forgivenesse of sinnes with this argument as or because we forgive those who trespasse against us and doe not alwaies pray against Temptation If they seek to justifie their not using the Lords Prayer and their not imitating it in the former of these particulars lest they should occasion many to pray against themselves because they cannot finde in their hearts to forgive their brethren To this we reply that all our prayers ought to be according to this modell or pattern themselves being Judges To the Lords Prayer bring we all our prayers if they are not according to this rule it is because as to that thing wherein they are irregular or not conforme hereto the true spirit of prayer is not in them 2. If we will not heare Gods Commandement to forgive our brethren how should we expect God should heare our prayers for forgivenesse we must both pray and practise according to Gods will if we would have our wills done if we would have God fulfill our desires 3. The crookedness of mens hearts and waies can be no right rule for Gods Minister in publick prayer but the Word of God and prayer of our Lord Christ 4. The using of this prayer may be instead of a Sermon to such malitious ones to minde them of and move them to forgivenesse However I doubt not but some of the Israelites might be guilty of some of those sins against which the curse was denounced by the Priests on Mount Ebal and to which the Congregation said Amen Obj. Papists and profane ignorant Protestants make an ill use of this good prayer make a kind of Idoll of it and therefore we should lay it aside after the example of Hezekiah who demolished the brazen Serpent when it was abused to Idolatry 2 King 18.4 Answ Some mens abuse of naturall things must not hinder or prejudice others in their right to use them lawfully much lesse must mans abuse annull or make void Gods Institutions Our Saviour sanctifyed the Sabbath although the Jewes were superstitious in their manner of observation of it We must not lay aside the first part of the Gospell written by the holy Evangelist John because it hath been abused in charmes c. And we may still use the words of Christ This is my body in celebration of the Lords Supper notwithstanding that Papists thereupon ground Transubstantiation and Artolatry or worship of the bread believing it to be the body of Christ corporally and not only Sacramentally As the Apostle Paul to Timothy 1 Epist Chap. 1.8 saith of the law of God The law is good if a man use it lawfully So say I of the prayer of our Lord The Prayer is good if a man use it lawfully If the meer abuse of things should take away all lawfull use of them we should soon be deprived of the benefit both of Gods creatures and of his ordinances