Christ under her Troubles and Persecutions in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ Rev. 1.9 For all that will live godly in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.12 shall suffer Persecution And we must thrô much Tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14.22 Seeing therefore it is given to us not only to believe on Christ but also to suffer for his Sake Phil. 1.29 and that God has appointed his Church her Days of Mourning and that thrô her falling away from her primitive Love and Zeal she has lost much of those blessed Gifts of the Holy Spirit she then had Let us not deceive our selves and think to recover the Gift of Singing with our carnal Spirits Isa 22.12 13. in an improper and contrary Season Israel-like when we should mourn for the great Apostacy Pride Covetousness and Carnality of Spirit which is found in the Church of Christ and fast and pray for the Pardon of Sins Isa 32.15 the full Deliverance of the Captive Daughter of Sion and the Return of the Holy Spirit that the Wilderness may become a fruitful Field And therefore as our Sins deprive us and as God hath not allotted to us a Heaven of continual Joy and constant Singing in this present evil World so the different Graces of his Holy Spirit and Duties required of us are suited to the different Circumstances of our Lives which are mostly filled with Troubles Sins and Temptations And though particular Saints may and oft-times do rejoice and glory in Tribulations when the Spirit of Glory rests upon them and raises their Hearts above their Troubles yet this is but now and then at certain Times through a sight of Faith when God is sealing his Love upon their Spirits to incourage their Souls to persevere Otherwise if it were constant Troubles would be no more Troubles nor Afflictions no more Afflictions or if their Joys were greater and more constant than their Sorrows it could not so properly be called a Sackcloth mournful afflicted State for either of them which is most constant and in which we have the greatest Share and Exercise of our Lives deservedly beareth the Name And therefore if particular Souls or the Church of Christ in general be in a State of Trouble and Affliction they are so far uncapable of the constant Exercise of the Grace of Joy and consequently of constant spiritual Singing in the publick Worship of God as their Troubles and Sorrows must needs exceed their Joys and then the Graces and Duties suitable to that State should be in exercise as Long-suffering Patience Faith of Reliance Meekness Watching Praying c. which are more strongly injoined and oftner pressed on us in the New Testament for our constant Practice than Singing is and that because our Troubles and Sorrows are more constant than our spiritual Raptures So that from our Incapacity of maintaining a constant and sufficient Exercise of the Grace of Joy in our Souls through the Troubles Sins and Temptations of this World the Weakness of our Faith and want of the sufficient Gift of the Holy Spirit we are not now able to sing with the Spirit and with the Understanding also in the constant and publick Worship of God and to press it beyond our Understanding proportion of Faith and measure of the gracious Gift of the Holy Spirit when other Graces should be in exercise is a Sin 2. Every true Christian nor the Church of Christ in general is not capable to sing Praises to the Lord in his publick and constant Worship because the greatest number of Christians as it is believed especially in our Day have not attained to a sufficient Faith of Assurance of the Love of God in Christ Jesus unto their Souls Rom 5.1 to 5. which made the Apostles to rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory but have their doubtings between Hope and Fear of what shall become of them to all Eternity 1 Pet. 1.8 And therefore while they are in the new Birth or Babes in Christ and have not met with the witnessing Power Rom. 8.15 or perswasive Influence of the Holy Spirit with their Spirits that they are the Children of God they cannot sing his Praise for their Redemption for if they are not sufficiently assured of it by Faith they cannot so rejoice in it And we should not think that God requireth more of his Church and People than he hath given Ability and Qualifications to perform Tenth Objection Formal Prayer and Singing were used under the Law and therefore why not formal Prayer and Singing under the Gospel Answer As the visible and successive Ministers of the Worship and Service of God under the Law were not called as spiritual converted regenerated Believers but were an Election out of the natural and carnal Seed of Abraham in their Generations by Succession unto the Ministerial Office so the Body of the Old-Testament-Church were not called into that visible Church-State as spiritual regenerated Believers but as the natural and carnal Seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And therefore as that People were carnally and nationally imbodied into a visible Church-state so their instituted Worship was formal literal ceremonial carnal and typical suitable to them and the Design of God to make them and their Church-State a Type Shadow and Figure of his calling a spiritual People into a more spiritual Church-State to serve him in more spiritual Ordinances in Spirit and in Truth And therefore since Christ is come in the Flesh and hath removed and abolished the Mosaical and Levitical Church-State Heb. 7.12 17 18. Chap. 9.8 to 11. the New-Testament-Writers have described Gospel-Things in opposition to them as Power to Form Rom. 2.20 29. 2 Cor. 3.11 Gal. 3.2 3. 2 Cor. 3.6 Rom. 7.6 Chap. 1.28 29. Phil. 3.3 Gal. 3.29 Chap. 4.21 c. 29 to the End Heb. 10.1 Chap. 9.1 11 23. Col. 2.17 as Spirit to Flesh as Spiritual to Literal and Carnal as spiritual Seed to fleshly or carnal Seed as Shadows to Bodies as Worldly to Heavenly as Types and Figures of good Things to come So that there is no legal instituted Worship as found in the publick Levitical Service and Circumstances that can be either proper or a sufficient Warrant for our Practice in Gospel-Times and therefore it is our Duty to look more directly into the Gospel-Institutions for Gospel-Worship than to confuse the Minds of weak Christians with Questions from the dark Shadows of the Law which tend to Bondage and have proved very mischievous to the Gospel-Church for which cause many whom God hath graciously enlightned in the Holy Scriptures have been forced to treat the more largely on Legal Ceremonies 2 Cor. 3.14 15 17. to remove the Vail of the Law which to this day too too much remains on the Minds of many Christians Eleventh Objection Prayer under the Gospel is an Ordinance of the same Nature as it was under the Law and therefore Singing under the Gospel
pag. 31. like as in Acts 4.24 which is fully opened before Object There hath been Women Prophetesses who have prophesied in the Church and it is said that their Sons and their Daughters shall prophesy and accordingly we have mention made of Womens praying and prophesying and wherefore may they not vocally sing as well as pray and prophesy Answ First It is doubtless lawful and the duty of Women to improve the several Graces of the holy Spirit and that if their Hearts are raised by such a Gift of the Spirit in the joy of the holy Ghost they may sing as well as pray and prophesy but none of these must be done by them in the assembly of the Church for part of the instituted vocal Worship of God therein For I see no ground to believe that any of those Women Prophetesses sent of God and mentioned under the Old Testament did ever deliver their Prophecies to the People in a Church-ministerial way and order but as they were inspired by the holy Ghost and as occasion offered so they delivered the Word of God 2 Chron. 34.22 as the Prophetess Huldâ—â— did to Hilkiah and other Messengers which Josiah the King sent unto her And as Anna did who though she delivered her Prophecy to the People in the Temple yet it was not as part of the instituted constant legal Temple-Worship for that was appropriated only to the Priests and Levites but she accidentally coming in at the same instant while Simeon was testifying of Christ she also spake of him unto all them that waited for Redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2.27 28. 2. Though there is mention made of Women's praying and prophesying in 1 Cor. 11.5 yet this cannot be meant of Prayer and Prophesy in the publick Worship and Service of God in the Gospel-Church for that is not lawful as hath been shewed for though they have the benefit and may partake and put themselves under all the Ordinances and Priviledges excepting those that relate to Government in the Church yet Women must not administer any publick vocal Worship therein and therefore it is spoken of more private Prayer and Prophesy out of the Church in their Families or otherwise as they were spirited and occasion presented as Aquila and Priscilla expounded the Way of God more perfectly to Apollos Acts 18.26 or as Elizabeth by the holy Ghost blessed Mary or as Philip's four Daughters who did prophesy as it is most probable in their Father's House Acts 21.8 or as those Prophetesses before cited under the Old Testament And therefore if Womens praying and prophesying expresly mentioned in the Scriptures cannot be understood of their vocal exercise in the constant Worship of God instituted in his Church then surely there can be no reason given for their vocal Singing in the constant Service of God when there is no such mention made of it as there is of their praying and prophesying in the New Testament SECT VI. AS to those prophetical places in the Psalms Psal 96.1 2. and 100.1 2. c. of all the Earth's Singing unto the Lord it is not worth my labour to answer unto them in particular seeing there is so much in the former part of this Treatise to reconcile them to the Truth in hand and therefore I shall only say That inasmuch as the Apostles sound went into all the Earth Rom. 10.18 and their Words unto the Ends of the World viz. of the known World and that there was then the Spiritual Gift of vocall Singing those Scriptures may be applied to that primitive Gospel-time but their more compleat fulfilling shall be in the great Sabbath which I believe will be the seventh 1000 years of the World which is that Rest that remains to the People of God Heb. 4.9 Isa 52.9 Psal 96 97 98. so much prophesied of throughout the Scriptures when the whole Earth shall be at rest and quiet and shall break forth into Singing SECT VII IF it be lawful to premeditate on the matter of Prayer we may also as well premeditate on the matter of Singing and if such premeditated matter of Prayer and Singing may be delivered in the Worship of God and limited to those premeditated Words wherefore is it not lawful to use prescribed Forms Answ First This Argument takes that for granted which is no wise to be granted viz. that vocal Prayers and consequently Singing may be limited to premeditated Words True it is lawful to premeditate on the matter of Prayer for if we deny this we cannot go to God in that Duty with a sense of our wants upon our Hearts and that the same wants which we are sensible of before we pray may and ought to be spread at the Throne of Grace in Prayer but yet we are not to limit our selves in Prayer to any premeditated matter nor words before Prayer For though our wants or the matter of Prayer be thought on before Prayer yea and it may be sent up to Heaven by inward Prayer before we come to our vocal Duty as we should always strive to maintain the Workings of Grace in our Hearts either in Prayer or Praises to God or otherwise for the improving of our selves in the Knowledg of spiritual things yet we should not form that premeditated matter to tye our selves in those very words to express our Minds no God in the Duty of vocal Prayer for tho such premeditated words may express our present Requests as fitly as any others yet to limit our selves to them is a quenching of the holy Spirit in that our Hearts are ingaged and limited to the matter of those words only otherwise our Hearts are either idle or differing from our Lips which is Confusion whereby we are barred from any farther Inlargings on the same or other new matter that may be presented to us by the various Workings and Leadings of the Spirit of Christ in us while we are praying and therefore as we experience and own such a thing as the various Workings and Leadings of the holy Spirit sometimes in Prayer we must then deny the use of limited Forms of Words to be lawful for in Prayer we are sometimes broken in Spirit under a sense of our Sins and have our Hearts chiefly ingaged in humble Supplications for the Pardon of them and at other times our Faith is most active to lay hold on the precious Promises and to plead with God and when the Spirit raises our Souls in a sense of the Mercies and Grace of God to us in Christ Jesus and sheddeth the Love of God abroad in our Hearts then our Mourning is turned into Thansgivings and Praises by the Spirit Now such various Workings as these might not all be on the Heart in Premeditations Rom. 9.1 2. Chap. 10.1 and Chap. 5.2 3. Ephes 1.15 16 17 18. Chap. 3.14 16. Phil. 1.3 4. as they may pass on the Soul in one single Duty of Prayer as may be collected from these Scriptures From whence we
Old-Testament-Names given to New-Testament-Singing do no more prove either the matter or manner to be the same nor establish Old-Testament-Singing in the Gospel-Church than the other Old-Testament Names do those Old-Testament-Things in Gospel-Times 2dly As those three Words are before proved to be indifferently applied to one and the same thing in the Old Testament so there is less Reason that they should have different Significations in the New for you may find that several Old-Testament Names are given to one Gospel-Thing 1 Pet. 2.5 Eph. 2.21 22. Rom. 2.29 Heb. 4.14 ch 9.26 ch 13.10 1 Cor. 5.7 as the Saints are called a spiritual House and Temple an Holy Priesthood and Jews and Christ is called an High Priest a Sacrifice an Altar and Temple and therefore it being usual to call Gospel-Things by divers Names of different Natures in the Old Testament there is no Reason that those three Names Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs John 2.19 21. See Pool 's Annot on Col. 3.16 which as Pool confesseth were promiscuously used and which are here demonstrated to intend but one thing in the Old Testament should be understood of any more than of one thing or sort of Gospel-spiritual-Singing respecting its Composure and Delivery Eighth Objection It is a moral Duty for wicked Men to pray and sing Praises to God which they are not able to do without a Form and therefore Forms are lawful Answ 1. Prov. 21.4 27. ch 15.8 The Scriptures say that the plowing of the Wicked is Sin and that the Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord and wherefore but because whatsoever Good he doth or desireth it is not for good Ends to serve and glorify God but to consume his Mercies upon his Lusts he turneth all into Sin Jam. 4.3 and therefore all he doth is but Sin if he prays for Grace he doth but play the Hypocrite with God for as he knoweth not what it is so he doth not desire it for he loves his own Sins and Lusts more than Grace and therefore his Prayers cannot be pleasing to the Lord whilst he remaineth a hardned Sinner 2. All Men ought not only to pray and praise God as their Creator but to keep the whole Law in the perfect State of Innocency in which they were created in Adam but now they have no power in themselves to perform the inward spiritual Works of the Law to love the Lord their God with all their Hearts c. and to pray and sing Praises to him they can do neither of these sincerely in their Hearts Rom. 7.14 for the Law is spiritual and requires spiritual Obedience but they are carnal sold under Sin and blinded in their Minds And as they have not a true sense of their Sins nor see their need of Christ so they know not that they have cause to sing his Praise for their Being And therefore for such to use a Form of Prayer or Singing when they have no Sense nor Understanding of what they pray for or that they have cause to sing is to mock God with their Lips with that which they have not in their Hearts Besides the putting of Persons on formal Worship is not the way to get the Spirit but to rest on formal Duties which hinder their coming to Jesus Christ 3. As Forms are many ways sinful and hurtful to the Souls of Men so there is no need of them as Crutches for Lame Men to bring them to Jesus Christ for where there is a true Conviction and sense of Sins that Soul can cry against them and if it be but with Lord be merciful to me a Sinner he shall as Christ saith be rather justified than with a formal Prayer without Convictions And when they are Sons God sendeth forth the Spirit of Adoption into their Hearts Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.15 that crieth and teacheth them whereby they cry Abba Father without the help of humane Forms Ninth Objection All true Believers and sincere Christians have continual cause to rejoice in the Lord and magnify God in the highest Celebration of his Praise and therefore it is their Duty in his constant Worship to sing his Praise Answ Whatever Cause we have to rejoice in the Lord and to glorify God in the highest Celebration of his Praise for Redemption-Grace and those sure and everlasting Mercies confirmed to us in the Blood of Jesus Christ yet it doth not from thence follow that we should constantly sing to God in his publick Worship 1. Because that in this Life the Joys and Consolations of our Redemption-Grace is mixed with Sorrows for Sins Temptations Troubles and Afflictions which deprive us of the constant exercise of the Grace of Joy in our Souls And as Solomon saith To every thing there is a Season Eccles 3.1 4. and a Time to every Purpose under the Heaven A Time to weep and a Time to laugh a Time to mourn and a Time to dance And the Times of the Church of Christ are differently set forth Cant. 2.11 and compared by the Holy Spirit to Winter and Summer when the Flowers appear on the Earth and the Time of the singing of Birds is come And as I shewed before that the Jewish Church through Sin and Unbelief had her Wilderness and Tabernacle-State and Time of Trouble which called for Mourning and Humiliation more than Singing so the Gospel-Church hath her Wilderness and Sackcloth-State in which she must prophesy 1260 Days Now as Sackcloth Isa 22.12 which betokens Mourning and Singing are inconsistent with each other so we should not imagine that God requireth such Opposites in Nature both together For he hath appointed unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them Beauty for Ashes Isa 61.3 the Oil of Joy for Mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness And as the Apostle saith Jam. 5.13 Is any among you afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalms From which it is manifest that Affliction and Prayer and Rejoicing and Singing have their different Seasons and that until the one be taken away the other is not given But some may think that the two Sackcloth-Witnesses in Rev. 11. are not the Church of Christ but two particular Persons and eminent Witnesses that should arise But to me it is plain that they must be understood of the visible Church of Christ for if the three Days and an half of their lying dead as is generally owned and cannot be otherwise understood be the space of three Years and an half of Time then also by the same Rule the 1260 Days of their prophesying in Sackcloth must be taken for 1260 Years which is too long a time for one Age or two particular Persons to continue And therefore the two Sackcloth-Witnesses are the visible Church of Christ Rev. 13.7 which the Beast shall make War upon and overcome Ch. 12.14 And so also must the Woman in the Wilderness be understood of the Church of
may also be of the same Nature and intend the same thing as it did in the Legal Worship Answer It is true that private Prayer is a Duty of the same Nature under the Gospel as it was under the Law both with respect to the like Occasions Wants and Necessities of the Saints and to the same Spirit by which all true Believers do offer up spiritual and effectual Prayers to God But as to the Conveyance and Delivery of Prayer as an Ordinance in and for the publick ministerial and ordinary instituted Service of God in his Church there is a Difference in Gospel-Times to what it was under the Law for such publick Prayers were conveyed and delivered formerly with dark Shadows and carnal Ordinances by which means the Spirituality of spiritual Persons as David of whom it is said that he praised God by the Ministry of the Priests and Levites in the publick Worship of God was greatly vailed to what it now is 2 Chron. 7 6. 2 Cor. 3.13 14 15. 2 Chron. 29.25 to 31. Nehem. 11.17 22. since all those Forms Ceremonial Shadows and carnal Ordinances are removed for while the Priests were offering the Sacrifices the Priests and Levites in Songs with Instruments of Musick delivered such Psalms of Prayers and Praises as were appointed for the publick Service of God So that publick Prayers in the ordinary and constant Worship of God in the Old-Testament-Church was ministred in a different manner to what it now is and ought to be under the Gospel and therefore whatsoever Singing hath been or still may be in Gospel-Times may as well differ from the Old-Testament-Temple-Singing But having before shewed that Temple-Singing was no Type of Singing in the Gospel-Tabernacle-Church-State there is the less need of any Reply to this Objection Twelfth Objection Since the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit are ceased we must now pray and preach by its ordinary Gifts and if we are allowed to use precomposed Forms of Preaching why not of they might say Prayer and Singing also Answ 1. I do acknowledg and assert that we should not neglect Prayer till we have an extraordinary Gift or Impulse of Spirit unto Prayer but we should constantly go to God as we can not only for Continuance of those Mercies we have but for further Supplies of our inward and outward Wants which are the chiefest part of Prayer But Singing proceeds from a Fulness of Injoyment and is called a Breaking forth Isa 52.9 and therefore requires a greater Measure of the Holy Spirit For we can pray for what we have not but we should break forth into Singing from what we have otherwise we mock God and draw nigh unto him with our Mouths Isa 29.13 and honour him with our Lips when our Hearts are far from him and our Fear towards him is taught by the Precepts of Men and therefore when I consider the present State and Frame of the Churches of Jesus Christ I much wonder that so many should be for Singing when their Hearts are so much below Prayer for if we should go from Saint to Saint we should find that this is the general Cry I have a dead and stony Heart saith one and another mourneth under the Strength and Power of Sins and Temptations and a third for the Light of God's Countenance and the great Complaint is I am dull and heavy and cannot profit in Ordinances and that which is worst of all I am shut up in my Spirit that I cannot pray I want the Spirit of Prayer and Supplications Now if thus it be then where is the Spirit of Singing Will you lie and express that with your Lips to God which you have not in your Hearts But some of these will say Singing will raise my Spirit I find Refreshment by it and therefore I am for Singing To this I answer That there may be a natural sensual Joy in the Heart when it is not from the Light and Influence of the Holy Spirit and therefore we must beware that we make not our Spirits a Standard for the Worship of God but that we try our Spirits by the Scriptures 2dly As to Forms of Prayer and Singing I have sufficiently treated of them before and that the sufficient Gifts of the Holy Spirit shall continue for the Worship of God in the Gospel-Church to the end of the World and therefore my Business here is only to shew that the using a Form of Preaching is no Example for a Form of Singing if it be why not of Prayer also which you deny because there is Reason for a Form of Preaching from the Word of God and Example of Christ himself who read a Text and then preached from it though as he was not so others are not limited to that or any other particular Forms yet it is lawful for them and required of them to compare spiritual things with spiritual to attend on Reading and Meditations 1 Cor. 2.13 1 Tim. 4.13 15. 2 Tim. 1.13 ch 2.15 1 Cor. 4.6 and to hold fast the Form of sound Words rightly dividing the Word of Truth as a Workman that needs not to be ashamed of his Work as Paul who saith These things Brethren I have in a Figure transferred to my self and to Apollos for your sakes So that where the Scriptures do give us Liberty we may use it but it is our Sin to take it where it is forbidden as I have shewed it is to use a Form of Prayer or Singing I could say more of the different Nature of Preaching to that of Prayer and Singing but I think it is needless here and therefore I shall conclude with my humble Request to all those that are for Singing of David's Psalms or any prescribed Forms of Singing as the Custom is that they would be pleased seriously to consider of these several things following 1. That the vocal Singing together either of David's Psalms or any humane precomposed Forms is a corrupting of the pure Worship of Jesus Christ in mingling of Law and Gospel or humane and divine things together 2. It will lead us to Apostacy to return from whence we came as a Dog to his Vomit and as a Sow that is washed to her wallowing in the Mire 3. Consider seriously you that are Leaders of the Lord's People and are for such formal Singing Whether the same Arguments you now urge to your Fellow-Brethren will be pleadable for your Practice at the Bar of Jesus Christ you may plead them here to us but will you not be ashamed to own them there The Lord give you a true Sight and Sense of the evil Consequences of this your Error that you may not cause his People to sin but may yet with sound Doctrine strengthen the weak Hands and confirm the feeble Knees and make straight Paths for your Feet Heb. 12.12 13. lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed 4thly Consider that if you err from the Rule
may see that the holy Apostle in his constant Prayers for those Churches had the mixture of Sorrow and of the Grace of Joy and Thanksgiving to God But some may farther say That the Spirit of Christ can variously affect our Hearts and direct us to premeditate such a Form of Prayer that may sute the different Actings of his Graces in us in Prayer and this reconciles the use of a stinted premeditated Form with the various Workings of the holy Spirit in Prayer My Answer is That the Spirit of Christ can predirect our Meditations in those various things that he himself may help to ingage our Hearts in in vocal Prayer according to the same stinted Words as were premeditated in our Hearts before But as we cannot find any warrantable Footsteps thereof in the New Testament and as this is not the known way of the Spirit in Gospel-Worship so to assert that the Spirit of Christ does predirect and limit the Form of Prayer so as to suit his various Actings in us while we are praying does create these following Consequences 1. That no Improvement can be made of other matter in Prayer Psal 78.41 and that no other things can be expected from God in Prayer than what our Thoughts were fixed upon before Prayer which is a limiting and tempting of the Holy One of Israel not to meet with his People as he hath promised those who remember him in his ways Isa 64.5 Chap. 65.24 Dan. 9.20 21. Acts 10.30 Luke 3.21 Acts 11.6 and as the Lord by the Prophet saith While they are yet speaking I will hear and as Daniel and Cornelius while they were praying had a Message from God in answer to their Prayers and also Jesus Praying the Heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily Shape like a Dove upon him Which Examples do demonstrate that God was wont of old to meet with his People in the Duty of Prayer and it is the daily Experience of many Christians James 4.8 that while they are drawing nigh to God in the Duty of Prayer God is drawing nigh to their Souls and giving them many Tokens and fresh Assurances of his Love and Favour to them 2. It is a Temptation to us to neglect Prayer unless we find the matter preformed in us fit for vocal Prayer for if the Spirit composes the matter in our Premeditations for us to be stinted to in our verbal Prayers then we must wait for those Workings of the Holy Spirit in us before we can go to Prayer or else we must approve of our going to Prayer without a premeditated stinted Form and to rely on the gracious Income and Guidance of the holy Spirit for the well-performance of it as the Apostle saith Rom. 8.26 The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought that is we have not the full Fore-knowledg of what we should pray for viz. of the matter of our Prayer but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us viz. in Prayer with Groanings which cannot be uttered So that the Spirit it self does help our Infirmities and supply our fore-Ignorance of the matter of Prayer which we may not have a full and sufficient knowledg of but by the help of the holy Spirit in Prayer and therefore Prayer must not be limited to premeditated Forms 3. This seems to reflect on the Spirit 's sufficient Power to form an extemporary Prayer as though he were not able to furnish the Soul with sufficient matter and words to express it by immediately from his Dictates but that he must first have time to precompose the matter of Prayer and afterwards limit himself to it lest his immediate Help and Guidance of us in Prayer should not be so good a Composure for our Acceptance with God through Jesus Christ as his premeditated stinted Form And therefore seeing that we are not to tye our selves in Prayer to premeditated Forms this Argument cannot draw in a prescribed Form of Prayer nor Singing to be allowed in Gospel-Worship SECT VIII Obj. THE singing of humane precomposed stinted Forms of Psalms and Hymns and Songs in the Church are spiritual Worship if their Matter be agreeable to the Word of God and if they are sung with Grace in our Hearts Answer First Par. 1. pag. 15 16 c. pag. 43. That such Forms are not spiritual Worship is proved in my former Discourse and appears from the proof I have made herein that the primitive Gospel-Singing was from the special Gift of the holy Spirit and also from the foregoing Section for if such premeditated or prescribed Forms are not lawful we cannot expect that the Spirit should own them with his actual Presence in his Graces to make them spiritual Worship Unto which preceding Evidence I refer the Reader and shall farther add in answer to the latter part of this Objection That it is not the use of precomposed Forms of spiritual Words or matter so called because they are scriptural or agreeing to the sense of the holy Scriptures which were given by the Spirit that are Spiritual Worship because a Soul that useth such forms of Worship may have Grace in his Heart For true Spiritual Worship does not barely consist of spiritual Words and some Grace unless they be spiritual Words from Grace For if a Soul should be praying or singing to God with spiritual Words and with the habit of Grace in his Heart and is not in some exercise of it together with these words will you say that this is spiritual Worship when it is only verbal and the Graces of the Spirit of Christ in the Heart of the Person is in no degree active with them no surely 2. Though we are exhorted to sing with Grace in our Hearts Col. 3.16 yet it is not enough barely to sing with Grace but with the Grace of Melody see the other Text Ephes 5.19 that is so to be filled with the Spirit as that by his gracious influencing Power not only the Matter is formed from the Word and according to the Word of God but that the Grace of Joy is raised up in our Souls to that height of Melody as wanteth to be vented forth by the Tongue For Singing is called a breaking forth Jam. 5.13 Isa 52.9 Chap. 65.14 and it proceeds from the Joy of Heart and Mirth of Spirit And if any should farther say that there is as much reason to conclude that no Prayer also is spiritual Prayer if there be not a powerful Influence of the holy Spirit to form it in our Hearts I shall thus answer That the more or less our Prayers are formed and produced by the Influencings of the holy Spirit in us the more or less our Prayers are spiritual Prayers And as we cannot deny but that the least exercise of true Grace in our Hearts in Prayer gives essence or being to inward spiritual Prayer so the least exercise of gracious melodious Joy gives