Christ on condition it might do his brethren good to salvation why should we be such envious and churlish Creatures as to shut up the bowels of Christ against the greatest part of mankind which he was pleased to open to every man in the world that would receive him If this Doctrine did shut them out of Christ or from being partakers of the benefits of his Death and Passion well might their zeal be kindled against it but seeing that it debars no man from their right declares Gods abundant love sets forth Christs diffusive charity to the whole race of Mankind what just cause of so much heat and passion against it Wherefore if any come unto you bringing this Doctrine that Christ died only for one of a City or two of a Tribe of which two he is always one in his own opinion you may be sure pity his ignorance and bid him not Godspeed Pray unto God to open his eyes to see the wonderful things of his Law to take away the spirit of pride from him which makes him put himself amongst the number of them Christ died for and shut out his Brethren I come now to answer those Arguments which they bring to establish this uncomfortable Doctrine that Christ died for all men is a comfortable Doctrine to every man and every man upon hearing and believing of it can infer then certainly he died for me But if he died but for a few there is just cause of doubting for every man whether he be amongst the number of the few and unless God give a particular assurance it cannot certainly be known The Arguments which are brought against this truth are these The first is taken out of John 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world whence they argue thus Those that Christ would not pray for surely he would not die for but he prayed only for the Elect therefore he died only for the Elect. I answer This was a peculiar Prayer which Christ made in behalf only of the Apostles as will appear by the Contents of the Chapter read the Contents and you will see it is so Christ prayeth to the Father that he will glorifie him that 's the Contents to the sixth verse to preserve his Apostles in unity and truth that 's the Contents to the twentieth verse and therefore to apply it as it is applied in the Argument is to wrest the Scripture to a sense it never intended These words I pray for them I pray not for the world c. are meant only of the Disciples and not of all the Elect in opposition to the wicked of the world as may appear by the Context verse the sixth I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world ver 12. Those which thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition It is impossible that the former words should signifie all the Elect in opposition to the wicked for all the Elect had not yet heard of Christ or that the latter onght to be so taken seeing he says one of them is lost which it is impossible that any of the Elect should be Verse 18. As thou hast sent me into the world viz. to preach the Gospel so have I sent them into the world This cannot be meant of all the Elect for are all Apostles all Preachers of the Gospel And lastly if at the ninth verse he prayed for all the Elect of the world in opposition to the wicked of the world as is contended for how comes he to say at the twentieth verse Neither pray I for these alone Nay the following words shew apparently that at the ninth verse he meant the Apostles only for he adds But for them also that shall believe through their word A second Scripture is this I am the good shepherd a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep Mark say they he doth not say he lays down his life for the Goats but for the Sheep I answer That Christ laid down his life for the Elect this place doth prove indeed but it doth not prove that he laid down his life for none but the Elect surely it doth may some say because none else are mentioned I grant none else mentioned in that place but they are in other places of Scripture but if that were a good way of arguing I will prove he died for none but for the wicked Rom. 5.6 In due time Christ died for the ungodly I pray who resemble the ungodly most Sheep or Goats Certainly the Goats why he died for the ungodly therefore for Goats and not for the Sheep according to their way of arguing Thirdly they object the Apostle in Rom. 5.15 says The gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many he doth not say to all I answer Many in that place signifies all as will appear by the Antithesis or opposition By the offence of one many he says are dead many there is the same with all for it were absurd to say some as coming out of Adams Loyns are not dead and if it signifie all in one place it must do so too in the other or the Antithesis would be defective and you would spoil the Grammar of the place If in any other place many signifie not all but part only as it may where it is said My righteous servant shall justifie many it is not because he did not die for them but because they would not believe in him He came to his own but his own received him not but as many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God Fourthly it is objected Christ fore-knew they would not be saved by him now what wise man will pay a price for a Captive when he knows before-hand the Captive will not accept of it or will come out of slavery but will be bored because he loves his Master To that I answer My thoughts are not your thoughts nor my ways your ways saith the Lord. They may as well question Gods wisdom why he would be at such pains to send his Prophets of old rising up early and sending them to those he knew before-hand would not hear them Ezek. 3.4 God told Ezekiel before-hand they would not hear yet saith God they shall know that a Prophet hath been amongst them So God will one day make the wicked know that he sent his Son to redeem them both from wrath and their vain Conversation and they judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life God in his wisdom saw it good to send light into the world even to the wicked of the world although he foresaw they would love darkness more than light because their deeds were evil And so have I done with their Arguments grounded meerly upon mistakes To conclude By the Parable of the King making a great Supper and inviting Guests that would not come it appears God provides all things requisite to
could have walked to Christ on his own feet what could he have more desired than to be healed So if we come with our own invention or expression in Prayer we can expect nothing more than to be heard which God the searcher of the heart will as soon do when we draw nigh to him with words of the Churches composing as if they were of our own framing if the Heart be not wanting Yea but methinks I hear some say the Heart must needs be wanting for praying is one thing and reading is another I grant they are two several things but yet they are compatible and may well stand together When we read the Lords Prayer in the sixth Chapter of St. Matthew and our intention is only to inform our selves of the Will of God set down in his Word we acknowledge we do not pray but when we read the Lords Prayer in the Liturgy and we lift up our hearts to God in every of the Petitions then we affirm that we do pray So then when we read and our intention is only to receive knowledge into the soul we do not pray in reading but when in reading we also pour out the requests of our hearts then such reading may truly be called praying Secondly it is objected reading set Prayers out of a Book is a stinting of the Spirit but we ought not to stint or quench the Spirit therefore we ought not to read Prayers out of a Book I answer 1. If he that prays a set Form stints the Spirit then he that prays an extempore Prayer out of the Pulpit stints the spirits of all those that joyn with him for they that hear him and joyn with him are limited by his words and his sense and so it is as bad as a set Form to them for if their minds go along with him they pray the same Prayer that he doth and neither more nor less Now why should the People be tied to the Prayers of the Minister and not the Minister to the Prayers of the Church If it be sinful in one to stint the Spirit it is sinful also in the other and so no publick Prayer where many joyn together could be offered up to God without sin in this respect because the Spirit must be bound up and stinted in all but in him that speaks it But if the meaning of the Objection be that extempore Prayers stint not the Spirit because then a man speaks as the Spirit gives utterance which cannot be in set Forms then this absurdity would follow If to those men which pray extempore the Spirit of God doth dictate those words unto them then those Prayers would be as good Canonical Scripture if written by the Pen of a ready Writer as any of the Psalms of David or Asaph or any of the holy men of old recorded in Scripture which because it would be blasphemy to affirm it roundly follows such Prayers are not spoken as the Spirit gives utterance but are the effects of their own Art and Industry and therefore the turning of that practice into a set Form doth not stint nor quench the Spirit of God in Prayer That those sudden Conceptions are not dictated by the Spirit of God appears plainly by this men of divers opinions pray quite contrary things as for instance a Presbyterian Minister takes a Text sounding as he thinks towards the establishing of Presbytery such as that in 1 Pet. 5.1 The Elders that are among you I exhort who also am an Elder From whence he delivers the Presbyterian Government is the Government Christ establish'd in the Church After his Sermon he prays over again the chief Heads of what he delivered and says Good Lord settle those truths which to day thou hast shewn us concerning Church Government upon our hearts An Independent he comes and he takes a Text which he wrests likewise but it is to Independency and he bids them stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free and be not entangled with the yoke of bondage from which words he delivers for Doctrine that Independency is the only way that Christ hath left for his Church And after Sermon he prays likewise that the People may not receive his Doctrine as the word of a man but as the Will and Word of God Call ye this praying by the Spirit To say so is in deed and truth a blaspheming of the Spirit for the Spirit of God cannot speak contradictions as these men do in their Pulpit Conceptions And yet they would father all upon the incomes of the Spirit which assisted them in carrying on the work of the day Their Sermons being contradictory one to the other and their Prayers sutable to their Sermons their Prayers must needs include contradictions also One prays God to establish Presbytery the other Independency in the Church now how can both these be dictated by one and the same Spirit To pray with the Spirit signifies in Scripture three things 1. To pray by immediate inspiration so as to make no use of our own judgment or reason either in devising the matter or chusing the words but to speak only what the Spirit doth suggest Thus those that penned the Scriptures were inspired and spake not their own private mind or meaning but as they were carried forth out of themselves and moved by the Holy Ghost And so St. Paul is to be understood when he saith I will pray with the Spirit and with the understanding also that is I will use any language which the Spirit shall dictate unto me but I will interpret it that the People may understand it and say Amen unto it for while the Apostles lived there was in the Church an extraordinary gift of Prayer which supplied the place of set Forms but it was as miraculous as the gift of Tongues When this gift and the gift of Miracles ceased they used stated Forms in Publick and the Council of Carthage ordered that no other Prayers should be put up in their Assemblies but what were approved of by wise and prudent men in the Synod lest something through ignorance or inadvertency might be uttered contrary to the Faith and Doctrine of Christ Secondly By praying with the Spirit is meant to pray by the direction of Gods holy Spirit Jude 20. But ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost The Spirit helps in directing us what is fit for us to ask of God and what God sees fit to bestow upon man And this direction is given us in his holy Word where we are taught what to pray for so as not to ask amiss else we should not know what to pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 He that prescribes the model of an house and provides materirials and sets men on work may be truly said to build that house although it be builded by other mens hands So the Holy Ghost prescribing us Forms in the Word and inciting us to pray by promise of
reward and the like may be intituled to our Prayers Thirdly He assisting us with inward motions carrying forth our affections with zeal and fervency further than naturally they would tend may in this sense be stiled the Author of our Prayers As wicked men giving place to the Devil Satan carries forth their malice into murder and raises storms of passions in their Souls even as the Wind raises the Waves of the Sea even so on the contrary a man applying his heart to seek the Lord and call upon his Name the Holy Ghost aids him by his grace to make powerful Supplications with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered Now every adopted child of God the Apostle witnesses Gal. 4.6 hath these aids and assistances of the Holy Ghost in their Prayers stirring up their hearts to cry Abba Father thus and thus only they that are the Sons of God pray by the Spirit of God Now seeing the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication consists chiefly in a fervent application of the mind to the thing that is desired and to Almighty God of whom it is desired It necessarily follows that words that are known and fitted to mens understandings are soonest received into their hearts and aptest to carry along with them judicious and fervent affections But it is objected That a set Form of Prayer makes an ignorant Ministry a School-boy may read a Prayer out of a Book To that I answer experience proves it hath not done so for the gravest and learnedest Scholars are for it There are other Offices for the Minister which require his diligence and his study First his diligence to Catechize the Children visit the Sick Secondly His study to divice the Word of truth aright comfort the weak stop the mouths of gainsayers so that he hath matter enough to exercise his parts about although he strive not to attain to that extempore way of uttering any thing before God which wise Solomon never admired And as for what you say concerning the School-boy the same objection might have been brought against Gods Priests in the Old Law that a Burcher might have kill'd a Lamb or a Sheep for Sacrifice as well as they But was that any disparagement to the Priest No more is this to Gods Minister that another can read Prayers as well as he seeing it is his Office and not theirs to do it But it is objected A set Form is superfluous for Nature will teach any man to shew his grief and a Lazer need not read out of a Book pray heal my Arm or my Log no more needs a man that is sensible of the plague of his own heart a set Form of Prayer in a Book To that my answer is twofold First Even poor lazer people to move others to pity and compassion will study pathetical Expressions and use humble deportment and great importunity and yet find all little enough to move compassion Will they do this for their Bodies and shall not we be more earnest for our Souls Secondly There is a vast difference betwixt a Private Prayer and a Publick Prayer a Private Prayer points to the sore of a mans own heart in this or that particular whereof perhaps all circumstances considered not one of many is guilty but a Publick Prayer ought to be so composed that it may concern all the Congregation and all the People may say Amen to it Now for a man to pray out of the sense of his own wants only may be a good Prayer for his private devotion but it cannot be so proper or so profitable for the Publick as a set Form wherein the Composers consider the usual wants of all Mankind If a man were to prefer a Petition to his Prince would he speak extempore Why what thou wouldst not offer to him thou oughtest not to offer to God Mal. 1.8 the reason is full of moral equity God is a greater King than he If you would be ashamed or afraid to bring indigested stuff to the one much more should you be so affected to bring abortive Conceptions before the other We may as well pray a set Prayer by the Spirit as sing a set Psalm by the Spirit Now even their own practice bearing witness these men can sing a set Psalm by the Spirit I mean after a gracious manner so that nothing but inadvertency to their own custom makes them grant the one and deny the other Indeed they do well in singing David's Psalms and they follow the example of Hezekiah therein who commanded to sing praises with the words of David and Asaph I could wish for the future that their Prayers were of the same nature with their Praises for these few Reasons with which I will conclude this discourse First A man may as well know before-hand with what words to pray as to what sense Secondly They that pray not the same words do use mostly to pray for the same things in other words As that God would forgive their sins avert his judgments strengthen their weak graces weaken their strong corruptions and the like Thirdly Because these are most for the edification of the People who by often hearing of the same Prayer can commit it to memory and used to the same Liturgy can joyn and answer in many pathetical Responsals Now all things in Publick ought to be done to Edification Fourthly An extempore Prayer may likewise hinder the devotion of the Minister as well as of the People for his understanding may be so taken up in thinking what to say next that he may be very formal as to his heart and many times will be forced to be so for fear he should be out Fifthly Our experience hath shewed us that their Method hath been confused their Tautologies many their Traulisms absurd their Sense none of the best their Passions vented and the Dreadful Name of God so lightly so frequently and so unnecessarily used in them that many understanding men because of them have been ready to abhor the Sacrifice of the Lord and could seldom or never say Amen to them Whereas in a set Form we are sure before-hand there is nothing put up in Petition but what is fit for Man to ask or God to give and therefore we can heartily without any hesitancy say Amen to it FINIS