praise the Name of the Lord for all his great and rich Mercies and Blessings And if the Spirit of the Lord did not enlighten the Understanding and Mind of Man to teach him what to seek and pray for but only did warm and heat Mens affections all this would be but a blind Devotion which all true Protestants cry out against c. That Heavenly and Sacred Fire that God sends down into the Hearts of his People is not a dark obscure Fire but shining and enlightening and hath Light as well as Heat in it The Spirit of Prayer and Supplication is not only a Spirit of Love but a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding And though there is a kind of Prayer that may be and oft is without Words either expressed or conceived in the Understanding because there is a degree of Understanding in Man that transcendeth all Words I mean such Words as we commonly use which are the signs of things signified by them as Aristotle defineth Words Verba sunt signarerum i. e. Words are the signs of things In which high degree of Understanding the Spirit and Mind of Man reacheth to the Divine and Heavenly things themselves without these words where the things are words themselves or where the words and things are not distinct But the thing is its own word and the word that signifieth it as the thing it self But Aristotle so much admired for his worldly Wisdom and Philosophy as it seemeth knew not this Mystery nor yet do his followers Notwithstanding of which because the Lord who is Infinitely Bountiful and Gracious unto men doth not only inlighten and shine upon this highest part of Man's Understanding but also causeth his Light and Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding to descend to the lowest degree thereof even to his Reason and Imagination for the very Imagination of man is said in Scripture to be wrought upon by the Spirit of God see Isa. 26. 3. That which is Translated in and according to the Hebrew signifieth Imagination See also 1 Chron. 29. 18. Keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts c. Which inferiour and lower Powers of man's Soul cannot reach to Divine things without the signes of Words Therefore it pleaseth God to work upon the Understandings of Men so as to make them fruitful to bring forth good and pertinent Words of Truth as well as upon their minds and affections to bring forth the fruits of Holy and Spiritual desires Wherefore the Apostle Prayed to the Lord that God would establish the true Believers in him in every good word and work 2 Thes. 2. 17. Whence I conclude that good words are as real a Fruit of the Spirit as good works or desires and these good words must not be borrowed words from the mouths or lines of others made ready to our Hands but must spring from the inward fruitfulness of our own Understandings as the spirit of the Lord doth water them and make them fruitful after a Heavenly sort For it is not the Corn that lyeth upon the ground though ever so abundantly which hath grown in another Land or Country that denominates the Ground where it lyeth to be fruitful but that is only a fruitful Ground which bringeth forth from within it self as it is assisted by the Heavenly Rains and Influences the like Corn or any other Grain that is good and profitable And therefore it is not the abundance even of Scripture Words which a man receives into his memory or bare natural Understanding that simply makes his Mind and Understanding fruitful unto God but the inward sense and mystery of Scripture words must be opened in him by the Spirit of the Lord and then the Understanding of a man by the help of the Scripture words being inwardly and spiritually opened by the Holy Spirit brings forth as it were as so many Seeds a plentiful Harvest where the good Ground of the good and honest Heart yieldeth its fruit some Thirty some Sixty and some an Hundred Fold and alwaies with some increase So that although Scripture words have a most excellent service and use to the Children of God and their minds and understandings are made fruitful with the Spiritual knowledg and opening of them by the Spirit of the Lord As the ground or soil is with seed sown in it yet the understanding is not confined to the strict and precise number of scripture words but yieldeth an increase of other words from the same spirit and of the same tendency and signification As the seed that is sown yeildeth more Grains than what was sown These and such like openings in great plenty to the praise of God have livingly sprung up in me as concerning Prayer time after time and have at the present writing been livingly brought to my remembrance with an addition of many more which here I present to all Friendly and Loving Readers to whose hands this may come for a general service where I have handled and treated of things I hope soberly and fairly in the spirit of Love and Meekness not naming any Persons or Parties by way of reflection to provoke them to anger or dislike only with some Fervency But yet in true Love I have reproved and argued against those who pretend to Pray by the Spirit without a set Form and yet deny the spirits Immediate Teachings and assistance And tho I aim against Reading set Forms of Prayer so as to make that Reading to be Prayer it self yet I am not simply against Reading of Prayers which have in any measure proceeded from the spirit of God in the Ages past SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING PRAYER And some Reasons that all Prayer in words whether conceived in the Heart or uttered and expressed by Mouth should be by the help of the Spirit helping us to conceive those words With an Answer to some Objections or seeming Reasons brought for using set Forms of Prayer read out of a Book Also concerning Singing or Praising God with a Psalm Quest. WHat is Prayer A. It is a calling upon the Name of God through Jesus Christ and the asking of him in Faith the things which we should or do desire Q. What are these things which we should desire and ask of God by Prayer A. They are many but may be reduced to these Three Heads 1. The things which are for God's Glory and the Sanctifying his great Name in the Earth 2. The things which we stand in need of or want as to our selves 3. We are also to Pray for others even for all men that they may be saved whose Day of Salvation is not expired yea for our greatest Enemies Also we are to Pray for the Church of God in general that God may build her up more and more preserve and defend her multiply his Graces and pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon her and upon her Members in their respective places and especially for those who have a publick Ministry in the Church that he may
as a natural Tree bringeth forth its natural Fruit from a principle of activity in its own Nature as it is assisted and helped by the influences of the Heavens and especially the heat and warmth of the Sun and the Heavenly Dews and Rains. And certainly the Prayers of the Prophets and other Holy Men and Women recorded in the Scripture were of this sort God moved and wrought upon their Souls and the powers and faculties thereof from the highest to the lowest and caused them all to concur and made them fruitful to bring forth Holy Prayers and Praises unto God And thus was it also with them in respect of their Preaching and Writing the Holy Scriptures in doing of which they were not bare passive Instruments but partly active and partly passive for most part at least as is demonstrable from the variety of stile and different manner of expression used by the Writers and Pen-men of the Holy Scripture the Holy Spirit acting upon them according to the diversity of their natural as well as spiritual Capacities and gifts whether natural or acquired wherewith they were endued So that as the Fruits of the Earth with their beautiful forms and shapes and diversity of Colours proceed not from the Earth alone nor from the Sun and Heavens alone but from both acting partly together and as the Child which the Mother brings forth in the comely and beautiful linements and proportion of its form is not the Mothers Child alone but the Fathers also So all true Preaching and Praying which proceeds from the Spirit of God and also true and right Meditation and Thanksgiving or any other true spiritual and acceptable Performances is a Birth of two Parents whereof the Faithful Soul is the Mother and God by the working of his Spirit is the Father And therefore it is that all Faithful Souls in Scripture are called the Spouse of the Lord and the Church is called Christ's Wife because as the Wife bringeth forth true and lawful Children to her Husband lawfully begot of him so the Faithful Soul brings forth as it were Spiritual Children unto God and Christ whose Father God is by the working of his Holy Spirit And these Spiritual Children are good Words and Works which the Soul brings forth unto God by the help of his Holy Spirit And therefore all such Preaching and Praying and Thanksgiving which proceed not from the Spirit of God in its inward workings upon the Soul And also all kind of Meditation or any other performance or work that is offered up unto God without the said inward working of the Holy Spirit is but a spurious and bastard-brood and cannot therefore be received and accepted of the Lord who only accepteth what is of his own begetting in the Soul. For what man will accept of a Bastard as if it were his own Child Now in this doth appear both the Wisdom and Love of God that he hath made the Soul an active as well as passive Instrument to joyn and co-operate with him in his work and service and in all what he requires of it And that there are none of the powers or abilities of the Soul or Faculties of it from the lowest to the highest but they may be actively imployed in some part of his service as the Imagination the Memory the Reason and Understanding of Man and its institutive Faculty which being opened and made alive in man through the Work of Regeneration can see and behold God as he doth reveal and discover himself to his Children many times without all words so much as inwardly conceived or remembred though all times it pleaseth God to make use of Words and through them as through the Lattess to show himself unto the Soul as also God maketh use of the Will Love and Affections of his People in the day of his power making them a willing People giving them not only to think and understand what his good and acceptable and holy will is but also to will and to do it For thus the Faculties and Abilities of the Soul which God hath given it are most nobly and excellently exercised when they are exercised in his service immediately and attain to their noblest and best end and herein is the Wisdom and Love of God also manifest that the Soul being thus made active with all its powers abilities and faculties in the works and service of God as co-works with him the Soul it self is the more delighted and hath the more joy and pleasure in those works when it reflecteth on them and considereth them as having a share in them as the Mother hath in the Children whom she hath conceived and brought forth for as it is natural to all Mothers to love their own Children whom they have conceived and born and suffered for so is it also natural to the Soul to love its works which it hath wrought in God and take delight or pleasure in them as God doth in his and as the Mother loveth her own Children whom she hath conceived and born and travelled in great pangs to bring forth into the World more than she loveth any other Children whom she hath not born although these other may be more beautified so the Soul loveth and delighteth most in those works which it bringeth forth as the fruit of its Womb through the assistance of God's Holy Spirit and it is well allowed of the Lord so to do provided it be with due moderation for this is a part of our own reward even to rejoyce in good works which the Lord hath enabled us to perform but the praise is wholly and alone to be given unto the Lord for them all for he it is who hath given to the Soul its being and powers and every ability both Natural and Spiritual so as without him it could not do any thing that is good neither Spiritual nor Natural They are therefore greatly mistaken who think as some foolishly and idly have done and Printed it against us that because we plead for the Spirits Immediate Revelation and Teaching and Immediate assistance to help us in attaining the true knowledg of God in right and true Meditations Preachings Prayers Thanksgivings c. That therefore we lay aside not only the use of the Scripture and other outward means and helps but also the whole use of our Reason and Understanding as men and of any other faculties and abilities of our Souls and become as so many dead and unactive Truncks Stocks or Stones or as if we did judg that the Divine Revelations Inspirations and Motions of God's Holy Spirit helping us to know and understand Divine things to Meditate to Preach and Pray and give Thanks c. did pass through us as a Sound passeth through a hollow Cave or as Water through a bare Conduit These and such like absurd consequences are but the idle and foolish dreams of mens vain imaginations who as it too much appeareth have never had any experience of or acquaintance with the
him he departs from them in so far and remaineth still in his own freedom altho such who seek to limit the Spirit by using Set Forms may and do quench the Spirit as unto themselves But they think there is no limitting or quenching or grieving of the Spirit in the case because they believe there is no such gift in the Church remaining since the primitive times as to be helped by the Spirit to Pray in words either in the conceiving or uttering them They grant indeed so far the help and assistance of the Spirit and acknowledg it altogether necessary to Pray acceptably unto God that the Holy Spirit stir up our desires and affections and excite in us his own Graces and the doing of this as they say is a sufficient helping of us by the Spirit as well when a set Form of Prayer is used as otherwise But why do they believe there is no such gift remaining in the true Church seeing they generally confess it was in the Church both in the Apostles daies and some considerable time since They say it ceased with the ceasing of the gift of Tongues and Miracles but what ground have they for this That is a bad Argument that because some of these Gifts which were extraordinary and less necessary did cease or discontinue that therefore this allo did cease with those other And seeing they do not profess to have the Spirit or Gift of Discerning whereby to know whether this Gift be in the Church or no. How do they know but some have it And as they say the Spirit is ceased in respect to help us to pray in words so others do as confidently say to wit the Socinians and Pelagians that it is ceased in all other respects and there is no need of it either to help us to conceive words of Prayer or excite our Affections but that man by his free will helped by the Scriptures without any immediate help of the Spirit can pray sufficiently both with good Words and fervent Affections And yet even these will say they are helped by the Grace of the Spirit to wit mediately and remotely by means of the Spirit Again Why do they limit and stint the help and operation of the Spirit only to the Will and Affections and to exciting the Graces of the Spirit in us Doth not the Spirit operate upon the Understanding as well and as nearly and immediately and closely as upon the Will and Affections Are there not intellectual Graces and Gifts of the Spirit to wit such as properly belong to and are seated in the Understanding as well as such that belong to the Will Do not we read in Scripture as well of the Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledg Counsel Understanding as of the Spirit of Love and Meekness c. And if they will grant that there are such intellectual Graces that belong to the Understanding as well as others that belong to the Will shall not these intellectual Graces be made fruitful by the Spirit and Understanding in whom they reside and are placed as well as these other in the Will. Again Will they not grant that the Spirit helpeth us to conceive Words at least in Meditation Or will they confine us to see Forms of Meditation as well as of vocal Prayer I suppose not seeing no such set Forms are yet extant and they themselves take liberty to their Meditations upon religious matters and preach to the People these said Meditations and yet I suppose they will reckon at times the Spirit helpeth them to conceive these Meditations which cannot be conceived without words And further The words of these set Forms of Prayer whence came they Had the Spirit no influence upon the Understandings of those Men who conceived them to help and assist them in those Conceptions If they say nay they will render the set Forms of Prayer of small value what the People in that respect But if they say the Spirit did help them to form these Conceptions of the words of their set Prayers then such a Gift is not ceased in the true Church for it was in these men who penned and conceived those Prayers it may as well be in men now to conceive other words of Prayer But 4. Praying by a set Form not only tendeth to limit and stint the Spirit and quench it in regard of its operations but also it tendeth to make the Understanding and divers other Faculties and Abilities or Powers of our Souls and the intellectual Graces and Vertues seated and planted in them altogether barren and unfruitful in respect of Prayer which yet ought to exercise the Understanding as much as any other thing as Paul said I will pray with the Spirit I will pray with the Understanding also For if the Understanding be limited to a set Form of Words then there is no room nor place nor liberty left for it to bring forth Prayer in any other Forms the which seemeth verily as absurd to me As who would limit the Earth to bring forth only such a limited and determined number of Forms of Vegetables Flowers and Fruits and not only so but to limit her as to length breadth and depth of each Form which we know is an impossible thing for the Forms of all living and growing things must have liberty to spring out from their respective Seeds Principles and Causes otherwise they will not grow but wither and die And as the Forms of Vegetables must not be limited and stinted to such peculiar Figures and Dimensions much less the Forms of Animals and yet far less the Forms and Figures of Mens Bodies and Faces For among all the many millions of Mankind that have been or are upon the Earth never were any two found but did more or less differ in outward Form and Figure in the Face or Countenance And surely as differing as Mens Bodies and Faces are so much or rather more do the Thoughts or Conceptions of their Understanding differ and to limit them all to one Form of inward conceptions of Words is as vain as to stint and determine all Men to have one and the same Form of Visage or Countenance And he who would go about to limit the Figure of the Childs Body and Face in the Mothers Womb to another shape and form than God and Nature hath designed to have would do amiss and be occasion of causing the Womb to miscarry and render it barren rather than any way to help it I know it is answered by some that the fruitfulness of the Understanding may show it self in other Exercises and Performances whereas man also may use his Gifts freely as in Preaching Writing Conference c. But why not in Prayer as well as in these other for to restrict yea and to hinder and stop the fruitfulness of the Understanding and the intellectual Graces seated therein in one respect is of a tendency to stop its fruitfulness and render it barren in other respects A Woman that is with
Child and hath twins in her Womb that is hard for to make her miscarry in the one but she will miscarry also in the other and he that seeks to kill one of the Twins in the Mothers Belly shall be in hazard to kill the other also But why should the one be killed or choaked more than the other Or why should the Divine Begettings of Gods Holy Spirit in the Understanding of the Soul as also in its Reason and Imagination be strangled more than these in the Will and Affections feeing they have both one Father which is God as they have one Mother which is the Soul. And also seeing what is begot by the Spirit of the Lord in the Will and Desires or Affections of the Soul hath a great dependency what is begot by the same Spirit in the Understanding and Reason For the Children and Servants of God they love him as reasonable Creatures and on reasonable accounts and for reasonable causes yea they have the best and greatest reasons for to love him and those reasons are presented to the Soul by the Holy Spirit in the Understanding and reasonable Faculty And it is generally acknowledged that the Will and Affections do commonly follow the dictates and suggestions of the Understanding and according as the Thoughts of the Understanding whether good or bad do most prevail in the Soul the Will and Affections with the Desires thereof do imbrace what is presented whether it be a true and real good or only seeming and apparent So that the Wills and Affections of all Men are swayed by the strongest Dictates which raise and spring up from their Understanding and intellectual Faculties whether true or false And thus either Wisdom or Folly ruleth the Wills of all Men with their Desires and Affections and consequently all their Actions All good Men are led by wise and good Counsels which the Holy Spirit begets in them and all bad and evil men are led by foolish and evil Counsels And hence it is that every good man is a wise man and every wise man who is truly so is a good man and every bad or evil man is a fool and is called so in Scripture and all sin and wickedness is folly and the real effect and fruit of it Seeing therefore all good inclinations motions and Affections in the will of Man Rise from good and wise Counsels in the Understanding and Reason of Man we must needs say that the Holy Spirit doth operate in both Understanding and Will and begets those good and wise Meditations and Conceptions of Truth in order of Nature before the good Inclinations and Affections which afterwards he begetteth and causeth to arise in the Will. But these good and wise Meditations and Counsels cannot be without words at least inwardly spoke or conceived in the Reason or rational Understanding of Man. And therefore the Spirit of God doth no less help and assist the Understanding or Reason of Man to conceive good Words then it doth help the Will to conceive good Desires and Affections It is therefore a great mistake and error of judgment in those who think that the Spirit of God doth only excite or beget in his Children good Desires and Affections but doth not suggest unto them or help them to conceive good words of Meditation and that as well to pray and give thanks as to preach And seeing Preachers are not stinted to set Forms of words in Preaching why should they be any more stinted to set forms in Praying I cannot understand for the Spirit of God is as near and ready to assist in the one as in the other And if it be said that men Preach not ex tempore but by study and long premeditation and therefore they are in less danger to utter or express unsound and impertinent words in their deliberate and long premeditated Sermons than in their extemporary Prayers To this I Answer 1. It is found by frequent experience that even in those long studied and premeditated Sermons many men have uttered very impertinent and unsound yea false and hurtful words and expressions for it is not much or long time to study or premeditate a Discourse that maketh it good or soundp seeing they who err in their understandings and have received or drunk in wrong and false Doctrines and Principles of Religion and wrong and false Traditional Glosses and Interpretations of Scripture may Preach very unsound and erronious Sermons altho they have taken a long time to study and prepare them 2. According to the former Reply If men shall study before-hand their Prayers as well as their Sermons then they are in no greater danger to speak impertinent and unsound words in Prayer than in Preaching but rather they are less obnoxious to such a danger because in Prayer men commonly do not meddle with matters of controversie or disputable points of Doctrine as indeed it is not proper 3. He who preacheth or prayeth by the true and real assistance of the Holy Spirit as he keepeth faithfully and carefully unto the same altho what he doth either Preach or Pray proceedeth from premeditation It being impossible that the mouth can utter any thing but the heart or mind of man must first conceive it which is a true and real kind of premeditation yet he need eth not any long time for the said premeditation For when his heart and Soul is once well prepared and fitted to be the instrument of the Spirit whether in Preaching or Pray ing c. The which preparation of the Heart at times may require a considerable season longer or shorter as the man is more or less grown up in Vertue and Holiness i◠the least space of time imaginable as in moment or instant when it pleaseth the Lord to assist the understanding by the Divine influences of his Spirit it can be and 〈◊〉 is made fruitful to bring forth and conceive as many solid and living Meditations 〈◊〉 Truth as may sufficiently yield matter 〈◊〉 discourse in true and sound and living words for divers hours But if the Spirit should not suggest so much matter of discourse in so short a space as a moment or instant but only as much as to furnish the Speaker with two or three Sentences or perhaps but one Sentence at first before that one Sentence be well spoke further matter may and doth oft arise from openings of life in the understanding of the Speaker to speak more and so continually still new matter may be and oft is afforded to continue his speech longer or shorter as it pleaseth the Lord to require or as in the wisdom of God a service is seen or felt And indeed various and manifold as well as wonderful are the waies of the Lord towards his Servants whose mouthes he doth open either in Preaching or Praying in the Assemblies of his People For sometimes as one waiteth upon the Lord in pure silence and in holy fear and reverence his heart at the present time being
empty of all thoughts or meditations in respect of any particular subject or matter of discourse and not having one particular Subject more than another in his view but his mind and Conscience singly exercised towards God suddenly and as in the twinkling of an eye a particular subject is presented unto him or the opening of some particular place of Scripture and here the Lord chuseth his Text for him and ground of his discourse or if it be to Pray the matter of his Prayer and his heart that was empty before of thoughts as to these matters is now filled with living thoughts and meditations concerning them being made fruitful to bring them forth by the showre or Rain of the Divine influence of the Holy Spirit in a moment or twinkling of an eye And at other times the case is otherwise as a little at first given and then a little more as it pleaseth the Lord to order and as the condition either of the Speakers or Hearers doth require it as even in natural conceptions of natural things those men who have a fruitful understanding and a quick and ready invention upon any fit occasion how suddenly and as in a moment will plenty of good and pertinent matter arise in them to discourse of If in a Lawyer to discourse of the Laws if in a Physician to discourse of Physick or in a Phylosopher to discourse of Moral or Natural subjects of Phylosophy the which extemporary and ready discourses when they come from a mans heart and the real fruitfulness of his understanding have alwaies more acceptance and authority with the intelligent and discerning Hearers than long studied or premeditated Speeches which according to the Proverb Smell of the Lamp and have more of Art than of Nature in them and more of Form than Substance And extemporary discourses that flow and spring freely from the fruitfulness of a man's understanding and the noble and generous parts or faculties of a well composed and clear mind are like fresh waters that have newly streamed from the living Spring or Fountain of them that on that very account are more sweet and pleasant than discourses long since premeditated and treasured up in the memory which through their oldness contract a certain tincture and lose of their freshness and sweetness of savour even as water long kept in a Cistern And if these extemporary discourses of Natural things flowing only from a natural fruitfulness of man's understanding have more acceptance and authority with the judicious Hearers than long studied Sermons dressed up with paint of Art how much more are those extemporary Speeches to be valued and how much greater authority have they and true and real acceptance with all discerning Hearers whether in Preaching or Praying which proceed from the rich and fruitful Soil of a good and honest heart abundantly watered and made fruitful with the descendings of the venly Showres and Rains of Gods holy and blessed Spirit And if it be yet again Replyed That the limitting or confining of him that prayeth to a Set Form doth not hinder the fruitfulness of his understanding for his mind and understanding is still at liberty to have as many and as various good and holy Meditations and conceptions of thoughts and words as is possible for him to contain or comprehend only he is outwardly limited to those forms as to his Tongue and Mouth whereas his mind and understanding doth remain free to abound in the greatest variety of good and holy thoughts and meditations For the people who hear they may also abound in these good thoughts and meditations who notwithstanding do not open a mouth in the Assembly either to Preach or Pray To this I Answer As there are many good thoughts and meditations which God giveth unto men for their own particular comfort and profiting such as these which the people have who do not speak so there are also many which God giveth for the comfort and profiting of others and especially of the Church And these ought not to be suppressed but uttered and brought forth in the Lord 's leading and ordering according to his appointed time and season And if the Lord move and require a man to bring forth these good things out of the good Treasure of his heart as certainly at one time or another he will so move and require where these good things are given to the man not for himself alone but also for others Is it not a plain limitting and confining the Spirit and mind of a man not to give him liberty either in Preaching or Prayer to bringforth what the Lord has put in his mind for that very purpose Is not this like the hindring the Child to come out of the Mothers Belly when its appointed time is come and to make her Womb its Grave then which what can be imagined more cruel But 5. There is this great hurt and inconveniency to limit and confine both Speakers and Hearers to Set Forms of Prayer the one to Speak and Read them the others to Hear them that it cannot be supposed that those Set and stinted Prayers will either alwaies or at most times suit and agree with the present states and conditions of the people The Scripture saith That words spoken in season are like pictures of Gold in Apples of Silver And concerning Isaiah it was said That the Lord had given him a Word in Season to the weary Soul. And indeed a word spoken in season whether it be in Preaching or Praying how sweet and comfortable it is Now these Set Forms of Prayer being to be used according to the Calendar such Prayers on such a day and others on other daies as the Calendar or order of the Service requireth Can these Forms be alwaies or for most part seasonable to the peoples states and conditions unless it could be supposed that the inward states and conditions of mens Souls and Spiris should regularly vary according to the Seasons and Daies of the year which were most absurd to think or imagin Or how do these Set Forms of Prayer which tell us daily what to Pray for agree with Paul's words Rom. 28. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should Pray for as we ought And if it be said That most of those Set Forms are conceived in such general words that they may suit or agree with all the various states and conditions of the peoples Souls To this I Answer To suit or agree with them in a general way is one thing and to suit them in their particular cases and circumstances is another And besides it is not upon the bare words of Prayer so much that relieveth and comforteth the Souls of people as the life that goeth along in words that are uttered from the heart of the Speaker as God giveth him a sense of the various and several states and conditions of the Hearers according to which sense of their various States he is furnished both with sutable
Weights and Measures I answer the comparison and example in this case is most unequal those Weights and Measures being but dead things whether they be Standards or those which are made by them But all true Prayer is a living thing and must have a living Form of its own and cannot borrow the Form of another even as a Rose or Tulip or Lilly or any other Flower or Vegetable or Fruit of the Earth as it springs up out of the Ground must have its own proper living Form and Figure and though it may be like to other things of its kind yet it is distinct from them and may yea and doth alwaies more or less vary from them in form and shape or figure and quantity as well as Colour and Taste and Smell at least as to the degree and no art or device of Man can bring forth an Herb or Fruit of the Earth precisely of the same quantity and shape with any other of the same kind And so it is as to true Prayer in great part and although one Prayer may be like another as to the words and may have the same words when the Prayer is short as containing perhaps one or two Sentences yet in this case the one Prayer doth not borrow the words of the other Prayer but both the Prayers have their own proper form that naturally spring from that Divine Life and inward Sense and Understanding in the Soul from whence they come As it was in those Prayers of Christ a little before his Passion when he prayed three times saying the same Words which instance some bring for using a constant set form of Prayer for who will or dare say but that those few Words thrice uttered by him did immediately spring from Life in him and not from a bare remembrance of the Words formerly spoken And besides the time being so short betwixt those three Prayers they may be said to be as well one as three the frame and bent of his heart remaining the same the whole time and the desire of his heart being still one and the same and after one thing to wit That the will of his Father might be done when his Prayer was rather a breathing forth of his earnest desire after one only thing and consisted at this time more in the will and affection than in the Understanding though it was in and with great Understanding also then that called Discursive Prayer where the Understanding and Reason is much exercised the which sort of Breathings after one thing expressed in one or two Sentences and sometimes in one or two Words yea sometimes but one only Word as to say Father according to Gal. 4. 6. is commonly called the Prayer of Aspiration and by others Ejaculatory Prayer and by others the Prayer of the Will which differs much from that other kind of Prayer which is Discursive where the Understanding and Reason is much exercised and the Mind is filled with many Thoughts and Words of Prayer inwardly conceived and the desires of the Soul are excited after divers things In which case it s almost impossible that at several times a man can pray the same words without adding or diminishing if he speak from his Heart and not from a bare Remembrance For even in Natural Discourse upon any Natural Subject a man that speaks from his Heart and the inward Fruitfulness of his Understanding he will vary in expression though the subject of his Discourse be the same And therefore to argue for the using a constant set Form of Prayer from the Prayer of Aspiration which hath but one Sentence or Word in it many times to Discursive Prayer which hath commonly many holds not good and is as improper and unequal as who would say when the Child cryeth unto the Father twice or thrice every day Father give me Bread using the same words that therefore in all the Child's Discourse at any time to his Father in answering his Father any question or asking any other thing of him and using many arguments to prevail with him that he may obtain it he should still use one and the same Form of Speech We find by daily experience that in Converse and Society of men with men they do not bind themselves to the same Forms of Speech as they discourse and talk one to another and if they did it would make their Converse very barren and unfruitful and would look very odd and import in him that alwaies used these same words on the same subjects of Discourse either want of Understanding and Judgment or some pedantick affectation Although in all intercourse of Speech there are some short Forms that are constantly and commonly used And if two Men should preach on the same Text and have the same subject of Discourse if they should both use the same Form of Words in kind and number without addition or diminition it would be generally concluded that the one had stoln his Discourse from the other or at least borrowed it and not conceived it from his own Mind and Understanding For as much as one Man's Child differs from another in Form and Figure of Body as much or rather more doth the birth of his Mind and Understanding in conceiving and uttering the matter of his Discourse differ from another yea as the Children of one and the same Father and Mother though ever so many do considerably differ one from another in Form and Figure especially of the Face So every Man's Speech or Discourse whether in Preaching or Praying will somewhat differ one time from another if he bring it from his Heart and Understanding and not from his bare Memory although the stile and manner of expression may be much the same And commonly those Men whose Understandings are naturally more pertinent and fruitful when they Speak or Write on the same Matter or Subject the Forms of their Speech or Writing do most differ and so it may in Prayer whereas other Men whose Understandings are not so Fruitful in Words but they may be as Fruitful and sometimes more Fruitful in Good and Holy Affections when they Preach or Pray the Forms of their Words and Speech may seem to be well near the same though alwaies there will be some difference as much as one Child who is very like to his Brother doth differ from him or as one Apple may be like another of the same Tree and yet when narrowly considered do still differ And here these last Mens Prayer whose Hearts and Wills are more fruitful in Holy Affections than their Understandings are in great variety of Words and Eloquent Expressions may and oft do Pray with more Life and Authority or Power than the other because the main strength and force of Prayer consisteth in the good and holy Will and Affections But in this and all other things as every one hath his proper gift one so and another otherwise so he is to exercise it and not to limit or confine one another but give
liberty to each other in the Holy Spirit of Truth and growing up together in God's Heavenly Garden as lovely Plants and Flowers each one having their proper Shapes Forms and Fruit all of a sweet and pleasant smell and taste and of a lovely Beauty and all useful and profitable one to another and to the Church of God in general without any envy or grudging but rejoycing in the manifold and various Graces and Gifts of God freely bestowed upon all and all growing and springing from the same Holy Root and Ground And now these two main Objections being Answered at length which did require the opening or explaining of divers things which may be of service to some I shall proceed to answer some others wherein I may be more brief 3. They object That some having good Hearts and great Love and strong Affections towards God and Heavenly and Divine things yet have weak Heads and Understandings and are not able well to conceive Words of Prayer in their Understandings And therefore should not these be helped by hearing or reading set Forms of Prayer well and Piously composed Answ. None have such weak Heads or Understandings if they have good Hearts or any measure of True Love and Affections towards God and Divine things but the same Spirit of Love which beget in them those good desires and affections hath been and is also in them a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding to beget in them or help them to conceive good Thoughts and Words of Prayer sufficient for them as is above proved and made apparent for the Spirit of God works upon the whole Soul and all its powers and abilities and as well upon the Understanding as the Will and whatever the Will cleaveth unto or the Heart loveth is first proposed and represented to the Understanding in Thoughts as lovely and desirable And if a Man have not Elâ—cution either none or small God requireth but of every man as he giveth him and he who cannot Pray with his Mouth as in the case of those who are Dumb if he pray with his Heart shall be accepted But he who can read a Prayer if his Heart and Understanding were as well and as much exercised in Divine and Spiritual things as in Earthly and Temporal and had as great a love to them and delight in them would soon find himself furnished with Words ex tempore whereby to express the desires of his heart to God And indeed in true and real Love there is for most part an admirable Force or Virtue to make a man Eloquent both to praise the thing he loveth most and also to find out Reasons and Arguments wherewith to perswade to the obtaining it He who loveth a Woman and greatly desireth to have her to be his Wife he needeth not go to a Book and steal or borrow an Oration or Form of Discourse to speak unto her in order to perswade her and if he did it would but coldly come from him and if she did know it as a very small measure of good discerning cannot but discover it that it was a borrowed Speech she would not perhaps accept it nor answer it But the natural and simple words that flow from the love of his Heart would most prevail and have the greatest force It is not Eloquence or Excellency of Speech that God requires or regards the profit and service of it is unto men and not unto God. It stirreth up mens Affections to make them the more servent but doth not more prevail with God than more simple and mean words yet God will have every man to use his own Gift and it is but want of Love to Divine and Heavenly things and want of exercise in improving and stiring up the Gifts which God hath given them that makes them think extemporary prayer by the help of the Spirit to be so hard and difficult Why may not Men find Words and Expressions as ready and easie wherewith to seek a thing of God by the help of his Spirit as they find them wherewith to seek a thing from Men which few or none do in borrowed Forms of Speech composed by another unless it be to some King or great Person that some who are feeble minded and want courage make their address by borrowed Words or by something writ on a Paper or by some other they get to speak for them But none of all these things is necessary in this case for God invites the weakest and meanest to call upon him as well as the strongest and the meanest words where the Heart is sincere are accepted of him yea suppose the words were broken and imperfect and not according to the Grammar of the Language they may be used at least in private And as for publick Prayer in the audience of an Assembly or Congregation these whom God calleth to such an Employment or Office he will no doubt sufficiently qualifie and furnish them for he who made the mouth can easily put words in it As when Moses excused his being sent to Pharaoh for his want of Eloquence The Lord said unto him Who hath made man's Mouth or who maketh the Dumb or Deaf or the Seeing or the Blind Have not I the Lord Now therefore go and I will be with thy Mouth and teach thee what thou shall sav Ex. 4. 11. And tho the Lord sent Aaron to assist him who was naturally more Eloquent yet God also put Words in Moses his Mouth as well as in the Mouth of Aaron And when Moses Prayed unto God in the Mount that Israel might prevail over Amalek we do not read that Moses borrowed any words from Aaron or that Aaron put any words into his mouth only Aaron and Hur helped to hold up his Hands And surely Moses in his Prayer here used not any Form of Prayer borrowed from Aaron or any body else altho some from this passage and Moses his being less Eloquent than Aaron have argued for using set Forms of Prayer But we cannot find it in Scripture that Moses stood with a Book of Common Prayer in his Hand and Read or Prayed out of it upon the Mountain but that he had in his Hand a Rod. 4. They Object That many by Reading or Hearing read set Forms of Pious and Godly Prayers both in publick and also in private have found their Souls and Hearts refreshed thereby and what they did read or hear read hath oft stirred up true and living Breathings in them and hearty Desires and Supplications with Thanksgivings unto God. And it is hard and uncharitable to judge that all they who read or hear set Forms of Prayer in private and publick and seldom or never use Extemporary Prayer are altogether void of true Devotion and never Pray by the Spirit because they alwaies or for the most part Pray by the Book Answ. I do readily grant that Reading or hearing Read Words of Prayer whether in publick or private if these Words have been originaly conceived by the Spirit
of Gods help and assistance may and do at times refresh the Souls of True Christians and may and do excite or stir up true and living breathings and hearty Desires and Supplications in them with Thanksgivings unto God at Seasons But then it is so when the Reading or Hearing those words of Prayer are put in their true and right place and accounted and valued to be what they are indeed and not another thing which is to say when hearing or reading those words of Prayer are accounted hearing and reading as they are and not Prayer which they are not for hearing and reading are things differing in Nature and Kind from Praying and ought not to be confounded with the same and the greatest service and advantage that reading or hearing words of Prayer read by another unto us have or indeed can have is but Preparatory to excite or stir up unto Prayer and then only can they do so much but as the Spirit of the Lord is pleased to concur and give his assistance with them But if People confound these so differing things and set up the bare reading or hearing what is read in the place or room of true Prayer as if they were true Prayer it self they may provoke the Lord to with-draw that concurrance and assistance of his Spirit from reading and hearing those words however so good yea tho Scripture words and altogether blast and make ineffectual and unprofitable those exercises which otherwise and in themselves considered are lawful and profitable For the Lord who is a God of order he will not have the nature of things confounded but keeped distinct He will not have a thing judged or esteemed to be what it is not or above what it is the tendency of which in this very case is down-right Superstition and Idolatry as to judg that to be Prayer and Divine Worship which is no such thing for whatever is not true Prayer and Divine Worship and yet is called so and really so judged and esteemed is false and a sort of Idolatry For I know no midst betwixt true Divine Worship and Idolatry under that head of Worship seeing all pretended Divine Worship is either true or false and if false it is a sort or kind of Idolatry Now it deserves to be well examined and considered whether the putting reading and hearing read set Forms of Prayer either in publick or private in so high a place as many put them if not most or all who use them hath not provoked the Lord to deny that concurrence and assistance of his Spirit unto those exercises which otherwise he might and would give especially when those read Prayers do altogether exclude those real Prayers which come from the Spirit of God as he enables the Speakers to conceive and bring them forth in words without any set Form. And why is it that many sensible and tender Souls feel no Vertue in many or most of those read Prayers and on the contrary feel great deadness and heavyness and great weights and burdens in hearing them which hath occasioned many to with draw and seek where to find a People where true and living Prayer and Praises are to be found which effectually reach to the Soul and carry their Souls and Hearts along to join with them For neither is it true Prayer to hear the words of him that prayeth most effectually by the Spirit of God but where the Heart and Soul joineth and goeth along by the moving of the same Spirit both in Speaker and Hearers that is true Prayer Again if People should not so far mis-place those things as to judg reading and hearing read Prayers to be Prayers or any part of Divine Worship yet if they lean too much on them and rely more upon them than they should and have more an eye and regard unto them than unto the Spirit of God this also will make their reading and hearing or any other exercise ineffectual unto them and altogether unprofitable But Secoudly I shall neither be so hard nor uncharitable but am very far from it as to judg that all they who hear or read set Forms of Prayer in private and publick and seldom or never use Extemporary Prayer by the help of the Spirit giving them to conceive or express words of Prayer are altogether void of true Devotion and never Pray by the Spirit For my Charity is so large and free in that respect that I believe among all People Jews and Turks as well as Christians and many of those called Heathens if they do believe in one only God and are Faithful to what they know they are at times visited with gentle breathings of the Spirit of God which helps them truly to Pray unto him with desires and affections and true breathings of the Soul after him It is one thing what the Lord doth by high and soveraign acts of his wonderful Mercy and Condescendence to the Children of Men and another what he doth to them upon terms of their doing what he only requires of them and is pleased with in them 5. It is Objected If the Spirit of God doth dictate unto any Men in our days the words of their Prayers in that case those words would be as good Canonical Scripture as any of the Prayers of David or of other Holy men and their Psalms recorded in Scripture which were absurd to affirm Answ. These words of Prayer which come truly from the Spirit of God helping and assisting the Speakers to conceive and express them are no doubt real Divine Testimonies of God's Spirit Light and Life according to their measure but to compare or equal them to Scripture as we do not so to infer it is unequal For if all the Divine Testimonies which originally did livingly and purely proceed and spring from the Spirit of God hadbeen writ and aded to the Scripture the bulk or volumn of it had been too great yea many Volumns would not have contained them and it had been impossible for men to have read them all Therefore God hath Wisely and Graciously ordered it by his Divine Providence that a part of these many Testimonies which have come from his Spirit should be left upon record and preserved to all future Generations which were writ by some of the most Eminent of his Holy Prophets and Apostles and which have been unquestionably received in all Ages among the best sort of Christians who have had a true discerning to favour these Holy Writings and Testimonies and that what hath been so writ should be generally received as unquestionable Testimonies and Oracles of God's Holy Spirit and acknowledged as a publick Standard Rule and Touch-stoue whereby to judg and examine all Doctrines and Principles of Religion held forth by any Now it was altogether necessary that this publick Standard and Touch-stone of all Doctrines and Principles of Religion should not be too large and voluminous but compendious and easie to be read over and diligently searched and examined in a short time
be active and fruitful both to himself and others also It 's true the same Paul speaketh of a case wherein the Spirit Prayeth but the Understanding is unfruitful as it happened at times when a man was so inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit that he spake in an unknown Tongue as appeareth from 1 Cor. 14. 13. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown Tongue pray that he may interpret And in this case it is like that as the Soul's Understanding was unfruitful so it was unactive and was used only by the Spirit as a passive Instrument like a Pen in the Hand of a ready Writer As when the outward Ear of a man receiveth the Voice of a strange Language which he doth not understand There are other cases also wherein the Understanding and Rational Faculties of man may be laid aside and not used by the Spirit of God when he Immediately Inspireth him as when the highest and most noble Faculty of a Man's Soul or Mind is excited and wholly imployed and exercised by the Spirit which by some is called the Spirit of the Mind by others the Visual or Intentive Faculty of the Soul which seeth God as he is pleased to reveal himself and whereby a man hath a sense or perception of Divine or Spiritual things without any use or exercise of his Understanding Reason or Imagination as in a Spiritual Rapture and extasie But for most part the Understanding and Reason was used and imployed yea and the Memory also by the Prophets and Apostles so as to remember what they had read or heard and seasonably to apply it to the present occasion when they spoke or writ by Immediate Revelation or Inspiration For Immediate Revelation or Inspiration doth not exclude the use of means whether inward or outward it only implyeth a most near and close or intimate conjunction and union of the Spirits Operation with the Soul in the use of means as well as when they are not so used And Solomon who is generally acknowledged to have writ both the Books of the Ecclesiastes and Proverbs by Divine Immediate Inspiration and Revelation yet he saith Eccles. 12. 10. He sought to find out acceptable words c. So that the Spirit of God made use of that Faculty or Ability of his Soul which is called by Logicians Invention as well as his Judgment not that he had any trouble or difficulty to find out those acceptable words but the Spirit making his Understanding Fruitful with plenty of matter and seasonable and suitable Words he freely and without any trouble or disquiet of his mind used such acceptable words 6. It is Objected That even they who pray ex empore by the Spirit in a Congregation of People do stint or limit the Spirit in the Hearers and their Understandings and Attensions to consider what they who speak say no less than if they heard a Set Form of Prayer read unto them Answ. This is altogether denyed for first the Spirit of God in one can never be thought to stint the same Spirit or limit the operation thereof in another or many because the Spirit is the same in both and doth ever accord and agree with it self in all its operations and what it moveth the Speaker to Speak it moveth and inclineth the Hearers to consider and where true Unity is witnessed with one inward voice and cry of their Hearts they speak the same things unto God their Hearts at every Sentence saying Amen to what they feel and perceive to come from the Spirit of God in them who speak Nor doth it hinder the understanding and attention of the Hearers in being exercised towards the Spirit 's workings and openings in themselves For many yea and most times what the Spirit speaks through one doth excite the understandings of the Hearers into more faithfulness so that they have more opened and revealed unto them by the Spirit than what the Speakers words did import as oft also the like falleth out in Discoursing upon a natural subject where the words do signifie more to some Hearer than they do to the Speaker himself exciting clearer and fuller notions or ideas of Truth in him And thus even natural arts have been perfected when the first Inventers had but some small beginnings others by those beginnings have been excited to find out more perfect things as the bringing of the first words of a Sentence to a man's Memory which he hath forgot doth oft excite his Memory to remember the whole Sentence Nor is the Mind of Man so strait or narrow but it can well enough attend to what another Man sayeth in Preaching or Prayer and also to what God inwardly doth suggest or reveal unto him And the liberty of the Hearers understandings and Spirits is manifest in this also that after one has Prayed in words if the same Spirit reveal any thing to be spoken in Preaching or Prayer by any of the Hearers he is free to do it without giving any offence which was the order prescribed by Paul to the Church of Corinth 7. It is Objected That set Forms of Prayer are most for the edifications of the People who by often hearing of the same Prayer can commit it to Memory and so it passeth to the Understanding and remaineth with them whereas extemporary Prayers pass away for most part as a Sound and are little remembred Answ. This also is altogether denyed viz. That set Forms of Prayer are most for the edification of the People for admitting or supposing that the Hearers commonly by oft hearing these set Forms had them all perfect in their Memory yet it will not follow that they have a true understanding of them for men may and do remember many things which they do not understand But again either these set Forms of Prayer are few or many if few they cannot give a large understanding to the People if many they cannot be well remembred by them and if they were as many as would fill many Volumns they cannot give so great occasion to edifie and inform the understanding as these Prayers which proceed ex tempore by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Holy men which must needs be many more and containing much more matter than the greatest Book of ever so many set Forms of Prayer can For on this account it is as I reckon why men are not tyed to set Forms of Preaching but are allowed freely to exercise their gift because that is more edifying to the People than set Forms to Preach by would be unto them And the same reason is as good concerning Praying as Preaching And tho words of ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit pass away as an empty transient sound yet by and with the help of the Spirit both in speakers and hearers they take impression both upon the understanding and memory of People who are made tender and sensible And tho all or most of the words spoke be not remembred yet if they have
in the Preachings and Prayers of the Lords Servants that stand on Record far surpassing all the Eloquence that either the Masters or Disciples of that artificial Eloquence so much admired in the World ever arrived or ever can arrive at meerly as such And likewise the same Argument may be retorted in respect of using any words at all in Prayer whether extempore or by Set Forms because to speak properly God is not moved by any words and hath need of them who knoweth all oue most secret Thoughts and Desires without words And if it be said that words are used to Men because they have a leisure to excite their affections then I say and variety of words with new matter as the Heart of Man conceiveth them by the help of the Spirit hath the like service and that more effectually as abundant experience doth prove then Set Forms of Prayer read out of a Book especially when the Reading is accounted Prayer whereof we find no instance in Scripture that ever at any time Reading was accounted Prayer though Prayer of the Heart and Affection may and oft doth follow and accompany serious Reading and Hearing 11. They Object That Solomon forbids men to be rash with their mouth or to let their Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God saith he is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few Answ. But he doth not conclude therefore let thy Prayer be in a Set Form of Words For here only he reproveth vain Repetitions and the Pharisaical Spirit which thought to be heard for their much speaking as Christ did also reprove the same And certainly Solomon was far from forbidding all extemporary Prayer in these words Eccles. 5. 2. Which may very well be conceived in few words as well as marry for he used it himself at the Dedication of the Temple as at other times although I shall willingly grant that ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit where the mind of man irreverently rambleth and wandreth into airy Imaginations is here and every where else forbidden in Scripture And wheras some also except against ex tempore Prayer as being monstrous like because of the smalness or shortness of time betwixt the conception and birth of that kind of Prayers however this argument may be used against ex tempore Praying without the Spirit that can have no place against Praying by the Spirit unless such Objectors will also cry out against the ex tempore Prayers made by the Prophets and Apostles of old as being monstrous or Monsters on that account but I hope they will be more sober And tho in some respect the time be very short as perhaps a moment or instant betwixt the conception and birth of Prayer as to the words or expressions yet the Substance and Root of Prayer wherein the very Essence and Life of true Prayer doth chiefly consist is long time conceived in the Soul before its outward Birth or Expression in the Mouth and is a constant abiding thing in the Soul. 12. Many who pretend to pray by the Spirit and have used or do as yet use ex tempore Prayer discover many weaknesses in those Prayers as vain Repetitions impertinent Sayings light and airy Phrases and unsound Matter and Expressions to the causing many People to abhor the Sacrifices rather than to be piously and religiously affected with those Prayers And seeing few if any have a Spiritual Gift of Praying ex tempore with words conceived by the help of the Spirit and that yet publick Prayers in Congregations and Assemblies of People are necessary is it not better to use Set Forms of Prayer in sound Words then to adventure on ex tempore Prayer without the Spirit Answ. As for all these weaknesses which Men have discovered or may discover in ex tempore Praying they reflect as is said upon the Men but not upon the Principle And when most of these Weaknesses have appeared it is in Men who pray without any pretence unto immediate Inspiration of the Spirit or belief that they have it and such Men I confess should lay aside their ex tempore Praying and wait upon the Spirit of God to receive help from him to pray first believing that it is to be received as it is waited for And these also who pretend to pray by the Spirit and yet do nothing so but are meerly guided by their floating and airy Fancies and Imaginations should desist from such a practice and come with silence both outward and inward and in the same wait for the true Spirit of Prayer to help their infirmities whether with Sighs and Groans that cannot be expressed or with distinct and audible expressions But surely these who indeed pray by the Spirit keeping close and chastly to the same throughout from first to last bewray none of these Weaknesses and though they may use Repetitions yet if the Spirit move to use them and that there be any vertue or savour of Life in them they are not vain but profitable and like the warbling Notes repeated Sounds of a skilful Musician in a musical Descant which rendred the method more sweet and pleasing and such serious grave and weighty Repetitions we find oft in the Psalms of David And these also who use Set Forms of Prayer have need that they use not vain Repetitions for some who have heard these Set Forms have been as much disgusted and offended with the many Repetitions they find there as others with those elsewhere Now it may at times happen that a man may be partly assisted and helped by the Holy Spirit to conceive words of Prayer and good and servent Affections and yet through Humane Weakness may discover some frailty in his Prayer who yet is not altogether to be rejected or discouraged But great care ought to be had by all who make mention of the Name of the Lord that they bring forth nothing but that which is pure and without mixture even a pure Offering and Sacrifice unto the Lord who is pure And suppose few or none in many places or Congregations have the Spiritual Gift of praying ex tempore by the Spirit helping them to conceive the words of Prayer yet there is no need of praying by a Set Form for if the Principle and Doctrine of Truth were once received and believed that God giveth his assistance by his Spirit to all who desire it and whom he thinks worthy of it or fit to bestow it on for the edification of others to pray ex tempore with words truly edifying quickening and refreshing as People did but wait a little time in sincerity for such a Divine Gift it would be given to a sufficient number of them and until it be given it is better to pray with affection of Heart though without all words and wait in silence for a further gift and measure of the Spirit then to be rash or hasty to pray without the Spirit either ex tempore or in a Set Form. And to help the weaknesses of many who cannot bear well long or much silence such as are serious and best affected as they find a freedom and liberty in the Lord may read unto the People or unto their Families the Holy Scriptures which was an ancient custom in the Primitive Church but that Reading is not to be used as Prayer or Worship but only as a mean to excite Prayer and good Affections and Defires in them as it pleaseth the Lord to concur and give his Blessing unto the same and also for Information and Doctrine What is there said all along in this Treatise of Praying by the Spirit helping to conceive the words of Prayer is also to be understood of Singing and Praising God with a Psalm and the Reasons and Arguments drawn from Scripture for the one serve equally for the other for all Singing and Praising with a Psalm or Psalms in Gospel times was a Spiritual Gift as is clear in the Church of Corinth when some had a Psalm to utter or express in words and others went along with them in Unity of Spirit making Melody in the Heart though not a◠audible noise pronouncing the same words as some had a Doctrin and some a Revelation some an Interpretation 1 Cor. 14. 26. 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