as usually attend their extempore Prayers Doubtless he cannot for where he has given Judgment and Wit and Eloquence he expects it should be us'd in his Service as well as in our worldly business Our Saviour bids us When we pray not to use vain repetitions nor think to be heard for our much speaking Matth. 6. 7. And Solomon Eccles 5. 1 2. says Keep thy feet when thou goest to the house of the Lord and be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou on Earth therefore let thy words be few How agreeable now this Doctrine is to the practice of the Dissenters in their rash approaching to God with a long inconsiderate Prayer let any Man judge When they made their Addresses to the late King James they drew it up with all the caution and premeditation imaginable and every Sentence was carefully considered on by several of the best Heads among them but they address the great King of Heaven with the rash and inconsiderate expressions of one Person and he perhaps a weak onetoo But some of them say Why should not Ministers be tied to a Form of Preaching as well as of Praying Why sure there is a great deal of difference between Preaching and Praying Preaching is directed to a Congregation which is made up of several People who have different Capacities and Apprehensions and therefore require different Phrases and Arguments to move them Some are drawn with one Argument some with another some apprehend a Man's meaning by one Expression some by another according as they are suited to their several Capacities so that 't is impossible to frame a Form in Preaching to answer all these ends But Prayers are directed to one God who is always the same and not to be pleased with variety of Phrases I shall conclude this Point with this observation That those who are most inveterate against Praying by Forms do daily use the same individual Form themselves word for word throughout the whole year as any one that frequent their publick or private Meetings may observe The Third sort of Pleas which the Dissenters use for Separation are such as relate to their Consciences For say they What tho' the Terms of Communion with the Church of England be lawful since we cannot satisfy our Consciences that they are so We must not act against our Consciences for that were sin in us For St. Paul says Let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind Rom. 14. But I answer first this Scripture is meant of indifferent things and no other as appears by the coherence of the words with the whole Chapter For the Apostle is there speaking of Meats Times Days c. and blames the Romans for condemning and quarrelling with one another about them But Secondly 'T is plain that * Note when we refuse any thing injoin'd by Authority we must be certain that the thing injoin'd is unlawful for a doubting Conscience will not excuse our disobedience A doubting Conscience is when the Conscience is in such a perfect aequilibrium or suspence as that there appears no more reason on the one side of the question than on the other in such case the command of Authority turns the Scales and makes it necessary for us to obey since for ought we know the thing may be as well lawful as not Scruples of Conscience will not excuse from sin in some Cases For 't is agreed by all that Conscience will not excuse from sin unless all proper helps and means are us'd to inform our Judgments and to come to the right knowledge of the thing scrupled This Mr. Baxter owns in his Dispute of Church Government p. 483. where he says That if a Man through ignorance or prejudice takes unlawful things to be lawful or lawful things to be unlawful this will not excuse him in his disobedience Suppose then for Instance that the Magistrate imposes a thing which he lawfully may impose as that all Men should begin the publick Worship at an hour and end at an hour The Quakers they say This is stinting of the Spirit and therefore sinful and that they cannot in Conscience Communicate with us till it be remov'd I will ask a Presbyterian or Independent whether this be a sinful Separation or not they will own it is notwithstanding their pretended Scruple of Conscience For the sin must needs lie some where either on those who impose the thing or on those who separate not on those who impos'd it because they allow the thing injoyn'd to be lawful therefore it must be on those who separate because they do not inform themselves truly of the lawfulness of the thing scrupled And indeed if a bare Scruple of Conscience will justify Separation the Anabaptists and all other Sects may as well justify their Separation from the Presbyterians and Independents as they can do theirs from the Church of England And by the same Rule we may subdivide till there be as many Religions as Men. I grant that the Obligations of Conscience are the greatest that can be and to act against the clear Dictates of a Man's Conscience is a very great sin but this must be meant of a Conscience when all due care and diligence has been us'd to rectify and inform it And then what is this to the case of our Dissenters Do they separate from the Church out of pure Conscience yes say they doubtless we do But have they us'd all proper means to inform their judgments and come to the knowledge of the truth Surely they will not say they have Are not the greatest part of the Dissenters a poor illiterate sort of People who know nothing of the Controversie between us nor ever trouble their heads about it but will go to the Meetings because their Fathers and Mothers did so before them and will rail at the Church tho' ask them what is amiss in it seriously and they cannot tell you And as for those few of the better sort among them who perhaps have had greater advantages of Education is it not remarkable that they Read and Converse altogether on one side and associate themselves into Clubs and Cabals of such who are of the same Opinion with themselves but avoid all occasions of creating the least intimacy with any who differ from them in Opinion And if any shall but offer to inform them tho' in never so peaceable and friendly a manner does it not prove the occasion of an eternal Quarrel or at least put a stop to any farther intimacy between them Is not this truly the case among them I appeal to their own Consciences whether this be truth which I say How can these Men pretend then that they have us'd all proper means to satisfie their Consciences They who really scruple things out of tenderness of Conscience would be sincerely willing to be better inform'd and would look upon them as their best Friends
call'd to the Office of the Ministry by God Almighty and have received our Commission to Preach the Gospel from him and therefore must not neglect to discharge our Duty in Obedience to any Power upon Earth for we must obey God rather than man But first I hope they will grant that when God Almighty gave them this Commission he did not limit it to any certain place but 't was general to Preach the Word to all Nations so that in obedience to God's Command doubtless they ought to go and Preach in those Countries where their Preaching is most wanted and will do God most service There are many Countries in the World that know nothing of Christianity and many that do have not able Ministers enough to serve their turn sure these Men that think themselves bound in Conscience to Preach wou'd much better discharge their Consciences by going into those Countries and Preaching to those poor People that are in so great want of it Christ sent his Disciples to Preach to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel The Apostles who doubtless had as universal a Commission to Preach they never went to abide in those Cities or Places where sound Teachers were settled before but they chose to go into those parts where Christianity was least known and their Preaching would do most good Why will not our Non-conformist Ministers follow their example Several of our foreign Plantations want able Ministers among them they want Universities and famous Schools to breed them in and therefore must needs be but poorly supplied If they would leave this Nation and go and Preach there 't would convince the World that they design'd nothing but God's Glory and the discharge of their own Consciences in desiring to Preach but since they do not 't is evident whatever their pretences may be that 't is self-interest and their own conveniency that makes them desire the liberty of Preaching in these Nations What have they to say to this Indeed the best of them give but a very unsatisfactory Answer hereto Mr. Baxter in his Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet says The Reason why they do not go to Preach among the Indians is because they cannot speak their Language and because many of them have Wives and Families which they cannot leave But for his own part he says if he were but young enough he would not trouble this censorious persecuting part of the World any longer Mr. Baxter has not been always old he was young enough when first he began to write against the Church of England Why did he not go when first he was prohibited to Preach here if he had perhaps our Divisions about Matters of Religion had been much narrower than now they are and a reconciliation much more easy between us As for their not speaking the Language there are many of the New Plantations in America c. that understand English and Latin and want able diligent Pastors among them And as to all their other Reasons for not going the leaving their Families c. they may carry them with them but surely no Reasons of this kind can come in competition with the great Advantage of propagating the Gospel of Christ and the Peace and Quiet of three Kingdoms But again They say God has commanded them to preach the Gospel and they must obey God rather than Man So God has also commanded them to obey their Governours and Magistrates and to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church and Nation in which they live Now since they must of necessity break one of these Commands by staying at home and preaching in separate Meetings and may perform both by going to preach beyond Seas certainly the best and safest way must be to doe the latter And if God Almighty has given them commission to preach as they say I am sure he has given them commission no where to disturb the Peace and Settlement of a Christian Church and State especially a true Church He bid them go and preach the Word and teach all Nations but we all know that the greatest Part of the World was then unconverted and had no Christian Teachers and Ministers orderly settled among them so that those whom Christ then sent could have come no where amiss every one of them was to make as many Converts as he could there being no limits put how far their particular Charge should extend and no farther but soon after even in the Apostles days when particular distinct Churches were gather'd and committed to the Care of particular Persons I suppose none of our Dissenters will say That any Ministers by virtue of their general Commission to teach all Nations might have come into another Pastor's Congregation or Parish and preach in a separate Meeting without Licence and draw as many People from their lawful Pastour to whose Care they were particularly committed as they could No they who did so were often condemn'd by St. Paul as appears in many of his Epistles And this is the very Case of the Church of England with relation to our present Dissenters Allowing their Commission to preach be as full as they pretend to yet it gives them no Authority to invade other mens Rights or to draw away the People from their lawful Ministers And especially since if they please they may exercise their Office in other places and do no Man wrong The Apostles had as full a Commission to preach as any of our Dissenters can pretend to and something more extraordinary and yet we don't find that they thought themselves oblig'd to preach directly in opposition to the civil Magistrate though a Heathen 'T is true for the first 300 years Christianity had not generally the Laws to countenance and defend it as now it has So that the Apostles and Fathers of the Church could not have the Command or Authority of the civil Magistrate for what they did yet they had his connivance and never preached directly in opposition to his positive command St. Paul says Acts 14. 12. They neither found me in the Temple disputing with any man neither raising up the people neither in the Synagogues nor in the City And again Acts 15. 8. Neither against the Law of the Jews neither against the Temple nor yet against Caesar have I offended any thing at all So it seems the practice of the Apostles was to preach the Gospel where they came so long as they were tolerated or conniv'd at by the Government But as soon as they were prohibited by the Magistrate they left that City or Place and went to the next but thought it no ways their Duty to oppose the Will of their lawful Prince though a Heathen And will not our Dissenters shew the same respect to a Christian Prince that the Apostles did to Heathen Magistrates But whether Christian Magistrates have power to silence some Ministers such as they think fit or not it is a thing questionless that has been practis'd by 'em in all Ages ever since the
and recommended by Christ himself in the New And that both Forms of Prayer and Liturgies were Composed by the Fathers and appointed to be used in the Church ever since Christ's days And that even the most Eminent of our own Non-Conformists have heretofore declared their liking thereto And that all the Reformed Churches do use and approve of prescribed Forms in their publick Worship at this Day And lastly I will shew That our English Common-Prayer Book has been particularly Commended and Approved by the most Learned and Eminent Men of the Reformed Churches beyond Seas And when this is done if any will be so hardy as to affirm That Forms of Prayer are so Sinful as to cause a necessity of Separation he is incorrigible and not to be Convinced by Reasons First then Forms of Prayer c. were used by God's People in the time of the Old Testament for the Lord prescribed a Form of Blessing to Aaron saying On this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying c. Numb vi 23. And again Deut. xxvi he prescribed a Form of Prayer which he commanded the People to use And the xxij Psalm is a Prayer which the People were commanded to sing or say every Morning so are several of the other Psalms Forms of Prayers as lxxxvi xc cij c. See Origen Cint Cels l. 4. p. 178. And here observe That the Dissenters will allow these Psalms to be Prayers and that they ought to be Sung to God yet they will not allow that a Man should Pray Singing For say they When they are Sung they are not Prayer See now what an absurdity they will run into rather than forsake their own Opinion For here they affirm That a Man may say the Words of Prayer to God devoutly and yet not pray Secondly Christ himself used a Form of Prayer though doubtless he had a power of praying Extempore much beyond what our Dissenters or any that ever was on Earth can pretend to when he was in the Garden a little before his Suffering he prayed twice or thrice in the same Words Matth. xxvi 44. Mark xiv 39. and that too at a time when he was in so great Extremity and Sorrow That he sweated drops of Blood and at such a time one usually prays after the most prevailing and fervent manner And to assure us that our Saviour thought Forms of Prayer very necessary to help our Infirmities we have not only his Example but his Precept for it too For our Saviour taught his Disciples a Form of Prayer Matth. vi 9. and bid them use it And the occasion of our Saviour's giving his Disciples this Form of Prayer was to obviate the inconveniencies which he saw did usually attend Extempore Prayers to wit the using Vain Repetitions c. which he tells them are not pleasing to God and therefore he first bids them beware of that and then immediately after he gives them a short and perfect Form of Prayer as the best way to prevent that evil Whether our Dissenters have not as much reason to use Forms of Prayer for that very reason as Christ's Disciples had let the World judge that hears their tedious extempore Prayers fill'd with as many vain Repetitions and bald and sometimes sensless Expressions as any of theirs But say the Dissenters When our Saviour taught his Disciples to pray he did not design that they should use any certain Form of Prayer For he bad them Luke 11. 2. When ye pray say thus and thus being an adverb of Similitude does shew that our Saviour did not intend they should use the same words but some other such like To this I answer In the 3d. chap. of Exod. v. 14 15. The Lord said unto Moses thus shalt thou say to the Children of Israel EHEIE hath sent me unto you And again the God of your Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you Here Moses by this Rule must not say these words not EHEIE hath sent me unto you not the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you but the like And by the same reason the Scripture is not the very Word of God but the Words of the Prophets for all along when the Prophet says Thus saith the Lord they do not tell the very Words of God but the like From what has been said 't is evident that we have Scripture on our side both Old and New Testament for using prescribed Forms of Prayer We will in the next place enquire what Authority we have for it in the first and purest Ages of the Church First then That Forms of Prayer were us'd in the Church in the first Century I gather from Ignatius who was Bishop of Antioch Anno Dom. 99. in his Epist to those at Magnesia he bids 'em Do nothing without the Bishop and Presbyters nor to make tryal of things agreeable to their own private Fancy p. 34. And Socrates in his History l. 6. c. 8. says That Ignatius first brought the usage of singing alternately as we use in our Choirs into the Church of Antioch Photius affirms the same of him And Theodoret says Hist lib. 2. c. 24. That this Custom of singing alternately began at Antioch and was soon received all the World over In the second Century Tertull. de Orat. c. 1. and c. 9. tells us They us'd Forms of Prayer then in the African Church He calls the Lord's Prayer the lawful and ordinary Prayer and that the Christians daily repeated that very Form And he shews they sang Hymns c. then in the Church alternately as we do now Tertull. ad Vxor l. 2. p. 172. And Calvin in his Instit l. 4. c. 1. affirms the same That the Christians did use to repeat the Lord's Prayer daily and that they did it by Christ's Command How will our Dissenters reconcile this to their seldom or never using of it even on the Lord's Day every young Preacher yea and every perhaps drunken Cobler preferring their own rash and indeliberate Prayers before it In the third Century St. Cyprian who lived then affirms the same that the Lord's Prayer was us'd daily for says he The Father will know the words of his own Son see Cypr. de Orat. Dom. p. 309. And the same Cyprian in his Ep. 8. ad Cler. Pleb p. 24. says Christ commanded us to pray for all men in a common Prayer wherein all agreed It appears also that the Priest and People pray'd by way of Responses as when the Priest said Lift up your hearts the People answer'd We lift them up unto the Lord. See Cypr. de Orat. Dom. § 22. See more for this interchangable way of praying between Priest and People B. Bils of Christian Subjection part 4. p. 435. In the same Century Origen says They who served God through Jesus in the Christian way use frequently night and day the injoined Prayers See Orig. in