in thine Heart that God hath raised Him from the Dead thou shalt be saved For with the Heart Man believes unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto salvation To profess solemnly that we expect no Happiness but from the good pleasure of God and that we freely acquiesce in his Provisions for us is no small Evidence of the submission of our Minds to God and upon that account may be reckoned an Instance of External Worship and accordingly many of the Psalms contain such Confessions 3. You sit generally at your Publick Prayers 4. At the holy Sacrament you sit not only whilst you Receive but likewise at the Thanksgiving and Blessing before and your Directory imposes this posture on Communicants tho' contrary to Holy Scripture in respect of that part that concerns the Prayer and Thanksgiving and without any Command or so much as Example from Scripture in respect of the sitting at the time of Receiving 5. Too many of your perswasion condemn us who conform to God's Word in these particulars as guilty of Superstition and endeavour to render our Conformity ridiculous not being content to lay aside the Commands of God themselves but endeavouring likewise to condemn and scoff at the Observation of them in Vs. In short I entreat you to consider That you have not any one Visible Act of Adoration amongst you in your Assemblies except we reckon in this Number That your Men Vncover their Heads at Prayer and yet even this is not required by your Directory III. And now let me a while Examine calmly with you the Pretences I have met with for laying aside this part of God's Worship for it is not probable that any would banish Adoration out of their Assemblies and alledge no Reason for their doing so 1. First therefore I find that place of Scripture produced to this purpose John iv 24 God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth Some think that all Bodily Worship is here forbidden and that only the Worship of the Spirit or Mind is required of us under the Gospel Upon this some have declared against all Churches or separate places for Worship Others are against all Bodily VVorship Others against all Sacraments Others against all Vocal Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings And even in the Apostle's time some were against all Visible Assemblies And indeed if we understand this place as some do that all Bodily Worship is excluded by it and that it is sufficient to Worship God in our Spirits or Minds only I do not see but all these are in the right and those who pretend to be above Ordinances and worship God no-where are most conformable to this Rule and next to them the silent Meetings of the Quakers without Sacraments without Vocal Prayers or Praises are the most spiritual service For if other Dissenters think Bodily Worship such as Bowing Kneeling c. Unlawful or Unnecessary because they are Acts of the Body and unfit on that account to be offered to God who is a Spirit why may not the Quakers omit the Sacraments and the Words of the Mouth which are Outward Things as well as the other Nay why should not outward Teaching or Preaching cease Since the Spirit is a sufficient Teacher and has promised us Heb. viii 10 I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts Vers. 11. And they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother c. The Principle and Reasoning is the same in all these and will justifie the Silent Meetings of the Quakers nay the Extravagance of Those that pretend to be above all Ordinances as well as the Irreverence of other Dissenters But we ought to interpret Scripture so as one place may not contradict another and since the Holy Scriptures shew us that God requires our Vocal Prayers and Praises our Visible Sacraments and Adoration we ought not to interpret worshiping in the Spirit so as to exclude these but rather conclude that they may be offered up to God in such a manner as to become proper for spiritual VVorship or God would never have required them When therefore our Saviour represents the Worship He taught the World as a Worship in Spirit and Truth his meaning doubtless is not to exempt us from worshiping his Father with our Bodies whereof He Himself has given us an Example but to teach us That the Outward Acts of Worship that we pay to God are only Acceptable to Him when they proceed from and are accompanied with a hearty submission of our Souls and that every Act is more or less Acceptable as it has more or less of our Hearts and Affections in it But that Circumstances of place and the like give us no Advantage and are of no value towards making our Worship Acceptable This meaning of the words directly answers our Saviour's design which was to shew the Samaritan Woman that the time was coming that the Worship offered to God under the Gospel would be nothing more acceptable for being offered at Jerusalem or Mount-Gerezim or any other place But the Heart being right all places were alike Which was directly contrary to the Jewish Law that allowed no Sacrifice or Oblation to be acceptable to God that was not offered at the Temple and consequently their Worship derived its acceptance from the place and not from the Heart alone of him that offered it We affirm therefore as our Saviour has here taught us that it is only from the Heart or Spirit that our Worship becomes acceptable to God and that the time or place where it is offered contributes nothing to our acceptance But that in whatever place at whatever time in whatsoever posture we offer up our Spirits and Hearts to God we are accepted by him But then we say likewise a Man who neglects the Assemblies of Christians cannot have a good Heart towards God because he breaks his Command that such as do not take care to provide a convenient and decent place and set it apart for Christians to meet and to perform God's Worship in cannot have a value for it that such as neglect the Holy Sacraments want Faith in His promises as well as Obedience to His Commands and that those who neglect to Worship him with their Body and to pay outward Reverence and Adoration when they come into his presence must want inward submission of their minds because they do not approach as he requires If a Man truly Worship God in his Spirit it will oblige him if able to perform these outward Acts and if he be not able God doth not require them It is in this as in Faith Jam. ii 18 A Man may say Thou hast Faith and I have Works Shew me thy Faith without thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works After the same manner a Man may say Thou Worshipest God inwardly in Heart and Spirit and I Worship him outwardly and in
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 face of the Church with my Body Shew me thy inward Worship without bowing kneeling or other Bodily act of Worship and I will shew thee my inward Worship and dread of God's Majesty by the worship of my Body From all which it is manifest that our Obligation to worship God in Spirit and Truth doth no more exclude Bodily Worship then Faith does exclude Works 2. The second pretence I have heard for banishing of Bodily Adoration is much like the first It is alledged That God has no value for it and that if our Hearts are humble and right with God no matter whether we signify it by outward acts of Adoration or no. But to this I answer 1. That God himself is the best Judge of what befits His Majesty and 't is a sure sign that He valueth a thing when he requires it since therefore he has Commanded us to render him this Bodily Worship for us to alledge That He doth not value it is too like setting up our own Wisdom above His. 2. The Words of our Prayers or Praises and all the Fruits of our Lips are outward things as well as the gestures of our Bodies and God values them as little as our prostrating our Bodies before him when the Heart goes not along with them as appears from Is. i. where he shews his Abhorrence not only of Sacrifices Feasts and spreading forth hands but likewise of Prayers vers 4. And Mark vii 6 This People honoureth me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me howbeit in vain do they Worship me c. Yet to throw Vocal Prayers and Praises out of the service of God were absolutely to destroy His Visible Worship and after the same manner to throw out all Outward signs of Reverence such as kneeling c. is a fair step to it For the same God that has sworn That every Tongue shall confess unto him has likewise sworn That every knee shall bow unto him Rom. xiv 11 Both therefore are alike required in the Worship of God and both alike insignificant when separated from the sincere concurrence of our Hearts When the Meditations of our Hearts go along with the words of our Mouths they are acceptable to God and when the submission of our Souls goes along with the Worship of our Bodies it is grateful to him and valuable in his sight as all other acts of Obedience are 3. Tho' Bodily Worship in it self were a small thing yet the omission of it may be a great and Crying sin and a great Contempt of Almighty God Thus eating the forbidden Fruit was in it self a very inconsiderable Outward Action and yet being forbidden is was the Ruine of all Mankind Thus the washing a Man with Water In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is in it self no great matter yet the willful omission of it is acknowledged by most to be damnable Thus kneeling or standing at our Prayers is but a Circumstance yet since God has required it and Holy Men recommended it by their Example to omit it willfully may be a great sin and render our best meant Prayers ineffectual Much more must it be sinful to condemn or mock at those who practise it according to God's Institution 4. As small a value as you think God has for Outward performances yet it is plain that you lay great weight upon the doing or not doing of them In cases of necessity we think they may be lawfully omitted but you are Taught that in no cases they may be lawfully practised You are Taught rather to stay at Home and not to Worship God at all Publickly than to conform in their Outward Gestures or Circumstances You are advised rather to abstain all your lives from the Lord's Supper than recive it Kneeling Now if you think God does hate them so much upon supposition that he has not required them and accounts them a polluting of his Ordinance How must it displease him to omit them if it appears that He has Commanded them as I think I have made sufficiently plain 5. I intreat you my Friends to consider That whatever Bodily Worship be in it self yet to throw it out of Our Publick Assemblies is of fatall consequence since it doth in a great measure defeat the design of them The great design of Publick Worship is First To signify and Testify to the World the Sense and Belief we have of the Being Power and Providence of God To declare his Name to our Brethren and in the midst of the Church to sing Praise unto him Heb. ii 12 And Secondly to be a means to beget stir up and preserve this sense and belief in one another Heb. x. 25 To both these ends Bodily and External Worship do very much contribute and 't is hardly possible to attain either of them without it For we cannot see into one anothers Hearts and therefore we must signify our sense and belief of God in the Publick Assemblies either by Words or Actions and if possible by such as are peculiarly appointed by God to this purpose But in your Meetings there is no Obligation on any one to signify his Concurrence with the Congregation in any Ordinary act of Worship either by Word or Gesture and therefore this end of Publick Assemblies is utterly defeated by you Your Directory does not require or allow the People so much as to signify their assent by adding an Amen to the Prayers or Thanksgivings there offered But on the contrary you ridicule those that practise it pursuant to the Directions and Examples in Scripture And as to Gestures such as kneeling standing or bowing the body c. you condemn them all as Relicts of Idolatry or Superstition There remains therefore in your Assemblies nothing whereby the people may testify their Belief or assent to what they hear which was one design of the Meeting Thus by turning all Bodily Worship out of your Assemblies you have made void this great end of them and left no visible distinction whereby any one may signify whether he assents to the Worship that is offered or dissents from it The whole Assembly being to one another meer Spectators and Hearers not Joint-Worshipers As to the other end of Publick Worship which is to keep alive and stir up our affections you cannot but own that the omission of this outward Worship is a great hindrance to it For it must needs be a great check to Devotion to see a Man come into the presence of God in a Christian Assembly with less Reverence or shew of respect then into the presence of an Ordinary Superior and behave himself less civilly there then he would do in a Court of Justice And let people pretend what they will That can never be suitable Worship to God which would be rudeness to a Judge And therefore the Quakers act much more reasonably who refuse to take off their Hats or pay Bodily Worship to Men then other Dissenters who pay it to Men and refuse
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