are like the Astrologers at Rome always banished and yet ever here For interest and advantage quickly turn prudence into subtilty and this as soon will erect a fortress to defend it self if it does not also expel honesty out of its neighbourhood Nay this private interest of Honour and Wealth too frequently rules abundance of men in the making Laws submitting to them and executing them too even against all right and publick advantage This we find to have been formerly at Rome For though there was sufficient and notorious evidence that the Books found by Petilius in Numa's grave were certainly his Yet because they were adjudged by the Senate to be contrary to the present customs and Laws of the City and consequently might tell tales and make discoveries and lay that common which was then inclosed they were without any farther enquiry sentenced to be burnt And thus we may without uncharitableness suppose that many deal with Religion Though they are convinced or else dreading the evidence will not have patience to attend the conclusion of an argument that what our Church professes and injoins is naked truth Yet because either its embracement or defence may at present or succeeding times lay them open to some temporal troubles or inconveniences they will neither be honest to God nor Baal but trim betwixt both keeping their own Boat upright let the tide and the waves beat which way they will And by another Metaphor cut with whiskers or shave all off and either they halt betwixt two Opinions or if they profess one they will leave it when a storm ariseth and follow our blessed Lord himself only whilst the loaves last but desert him if he once wants bread In an instance hinted at a little before when Idolatry was like to fall at Ephesus and then the Images could not stand by the powerful Preaching of St. Paul the people began to entertain an opinion that they were no gods which were made with hands But at last Demetrius a City Orator and for ought I know Master of his Company assembled all his Crafts-men together and informs them that their livelihood would be in danger and their trade set at nought if such Doctrine as Christianity should be prevalent among them As soon therefore as they understood that in the concernment of their Religion their trade was involved by which they were to make out their fortunes in this World and that the Image of Diana was that which supported them they quickly gave a check to their own hesitations in matter of Religion the grandeur of Diana was presently concerned they grew full of wrath for what they had a favourable opinion of and cried out with the largest throat they could make even for the full space of two hours Great is Diana of the Ephesians Acts 19. So wonderfully prevalent is the sence of gain as if it were the only godliness for or against any Religion in the World among men who only value the subtilty of the Serpent but do not regard the innocence of the Dove And now upon the view of this can any of us secure our selves that they who are enemies to the Church of England whatever friendship there may be among themselves do not share in this thing Can we conclude that they exalt not Schism for wealth or reputation Or upon any equilibrious or probable arguments so much as hope that they adhere to a party where all profess the same faith without some respects and designs that are far different from the Christian Religion and Protestant interest If not Then amongst English men that bid defiance to the Pope and much more in those who are not so much as Christians at large 't is neither the external deportments of men their fluency of language nor any of their seeming zeal or raptures that can evidence to us that their worship is such as becomes the glory or greatness of the Deity or agreeable to the reason of mankind since gain will force men to appear godly in spight of all our teeth and though they are bit never so severely if they please they will run on still till ye do not only catch them but hold them fast But let us leave the shell and pick out the kernel If we can find any in such a Controversie as this and a Maggot is not got into the Nut Let us travel from the Porch to the Temple and view both their Sacrifice and Altar if that word be not prophane and see well whether the fire heats parallel to the blaze it makes among them Let us look into the Modes by which our Brethren-adversaries make their addresses to Almighty God and judge whether their prayers or deportment is suitable to that respect which in solemn invocations is rationally due to the Divine Majesty and that infinite Being whom Christian men pretend to adore The usual way of the Native Protestants of England who Dissent from the Liturgy and Church Established in this Nation by Law among us is to pray to God without premeditation in relation unto words and as some affirm matter too expecting in this assistances from the Spirit of God notwithstanding all their rational faculties and external helps though 't is no way promised in this sence and so they cannot ponder before-hand what is sitting to be offered to their Maker Now can it possibly be consistent with the greatness of that power which disposes and confers the Crowns and Scepters of this lower World to admit such addresses which must be indigested and therefore rude If these men themselves were to petition any Earthly Prince for either a pardon or place of advantage they would very well consider both the matter and the form that neither inconvenience or absurdity might be mixed with the one nor rudeness or too much familiarity enter into the composition of the other Nay whosoever are chosen to present it are usually persons not only of integrity but prudence too not only such as may be acceptable to the Prince but they who have a deportment suitable to Majesty that can demean themselves with such humility and lowliness accompanied with a correspondent desire not only to represent the grievance of the petitioners but their affection too signifying the testimonies of the seriousness of their minds by the external gravity and submission expressed in the gestures and actions of their bodies And can any think that the great God when we make Religious addresses to him can be well pleas'd with what we account an affront to men since he is a rational living and infinite Being 'T is true indeed we have found some in the world who anciently worshipped Mercury by railing and Hercules by throwing stones at him But surely the God whom Christians pretend to serve is neither deaf that he cannot hear nor because he is strong is he become insensible Reverence and a most awful fear are suitable ornaments for him to wear who pretends to approach the Almighty to adore him for he is
A DISCOURSE OF PRAYER WHEREIN This great Duty is stated so as to oppose some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks As they are contrary to the Publick Forms of the Church of England established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by ACTS of PARLIAMENT By THOMAS PITTIS D. D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Wherefore that way and profession in Religion which gives the best directions for it viz. Prayer with the most effectual motives to it and most aboundeth in its observance hath therein the advantage of all others Dr. Owen in his Preface to his late Discourse of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer c. London Printed by B. W. for Edw. Vize next Shop but one to Popes-head-Alley over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1683. To my loving Parishioners of the Parish of S. Botolph without Bishopsgate And also to the Inhabitants of the Parish of Christ-Church together with those of S. Leonard Foster-Lane in London by the late Act of Parliament united my very kind constant and Gentile Benefactors Gentlemen THough I have a Patron who is your Bishop and mine too to whom I acknowledge the utmost of what I can perform to be due next God and the King Yet this Discourse consisting of that which has been lately Preached to you in the same order in which for fashion sake it is here published in a small Treatise I hope I may more effectually serve you at this time by presenting those things to your perusal which the most of you have with kindness heard from the Pulpit By our Honourable and Right Reverend Bishops Patronage and your favour I have had the credit and advantage too of Preaching on the Lords daies at both ends of your City And what influence by Gods blessing Christian and Loyal Discourses have had upon many of you your publick actions have eminently discovered And therefore without any farther complement I adventure to dedicate this Discourse to you who am Gentlemen Your most humble Servant Tho. Pittis There are some faults which have escap'd amendment either by my own or others oversight The Principal of which the Reader may correct in this following Order PAge 1. line 16. for one read own p. 12. l. 28. for altogether r. all together p. 34. l. ult for of r. for p. 36. l. 20. place a comma at here p. 52. l. 19. for might r. miâ—d p. 65. l. 6. r. who sustains c. p. 71. place the comma at Religion or it alters the sense p. 114. l. 8. for matter r. manner p. 115. l. 10. for form r. from p. 119. place things l. 20. after those l. 19. p. 157. l. 22. r. And when c. l. ult for Disciple r. Disciples p. 183. for their r. her p. 211. for Sess 22. r. Sess 6. p. 243. l. 10 11. r. at the close of several of his Controversies p. 243. at Essence blot out comma p. 252. l. 21. for nature r. natures p. 253. l. 12. for Omnipotent r. glorious p. 280. l. 16. blot out not p. 285. l. 15 for repeated r. repealed p. 315. l. 15. for nough r. enough p. 356. l. 12. for io r. to p. 358. l. 22. for Spirts r. Spirits The Preface Introduction and Method of this Discourse THE nature and composition of mankind like that Voice which was heard in the Temple at Jerusalem being a warning to its Officers and a Prognostick of its ruine cryes aloud that we must depart hence and since our abode in this World is a state of Pilgrimage and our life here is in order to another since we are a sufficient demonstration to our selves that we were not so wonderfully made to have our beings expire with our breath but the frame and actions of the reasonable soul loudly proclaim its one immortality and that death proves a change only not annihilation 'T is rational for men to employ their thoughts how to be secured of an happy state when they shall be remov'd from their station here to abandon this World which endures but for a moment and to make provision for a future which shall last as long as Eternity can measure it Now since there is nothing more likely to interest us in the happiness of the Regions above than obedience to him who has them in his disposal it is suitable to the reason and inference of men to put themselves into his service and be guided by the declarations of his will since he has exhibited his Laws to the World This puts us upon the exercise of vertue and brings us under the conduct of his government And because miserably dangerous is a miscarriage in this affair admitting no reverse after death nor can the thread of our lives be new spun when our common fate has snapp'd it asunder our fear of error cautions us to be wary that we may chuse well and neither incline to the temptations of the flesh nor be led aside by the allurements of the World or the secret insinuations of evil Spirits which like roaring Lions walk up and down seeking whom they may devour from hence we see the necessity of diligence as well to understand the Laws of our Maker as to avoid their violation which though sometimes it grows peccant by being over-curious when the passion of fear conquers reason and inclines men to superstition yet more mistakes are frequently committed when we relax our diligence from misapprehensions of the revelation of Gods will and on a sudden grow confident and presume inferring from our uncertain notions of Gods decrees that duty and devotion are not absolutely necessary for the obtainment of the end of our hope the salvation of our souls since Gods decrees are unalterable and the predestinate shall be saved let them do what they will and the reprobates shall be damned let them do what they can I shall not now endeavour to shew how inconsistent such positions are with the nature of God the liberty of men or the good government of the community But this will appear most reasonable that the Being of a God once granted and that he contains all possible perfection his worship and adoration will be a natural inference and if he be our Maker and Benefactor there is reason that we should petition and give him thanks For not to be grateful is inhumane and not to begg his favour on whom we depend is foolish and irrational nay worse than so for the Beasts themselves will condemn this whose actions are to us discourse and their sence of obligation arguments to convince us The devouring Lion is obsequious to his keeper the dull Ox knoweth his owner and the sluggish Ass that untractable creature his Masters crib It would be strange then if reasonable men should not both know their obligations and consider their duty Goodness is usually so attractive to the will especially that which is diffusive in courtesies that from bad natures it frequently commands both acknowledgement and returns Where this
means ordained for their own preservation CHAP. IX THat I may now draw to a conclusion of this Discourse I think I may justly infer from the whole these three Propositions the exemplifying of which I shall be as brief in as I may at least as short as may comport with the bad times in which we live 1. That the Prayers and Service of our own Church The Church of England Established by the known Laws of the Land are composed and performed in such a manner that God will accept them 2. That the Church of Rome offend him with theirs and is most irrationally and abominably peccant in their devotions And 3. That they who live amongst us and yet strangely separate from us under the shelter and pretence of greater Reformation and a more pure Evangelical Worship do not perform their services unto God in such a manner as is suitable to his Attributes and Worship mans dependance and that infinite distance betwixt their Creator and themselves And so upon the whole it must appear to be an unreasonable service First it may be plainly infer'd That the Church of England embodied with the State allowed and strengthned by civil Sanctions worships God in such a manner as he accepts and offers him such a Spiritual Sacrifice with which he is well pleased that can no way be frustrated of its excellent design but by a neglect in the devotionists or the bad lives of those who pretend thus to worship This will appear though not only from that which our Adversaries are pleased sometimes to call a Club Argument because it is Established by a Royal Christian Assent in Parliament And yet this as it makes for the interest of those who contend with us becomes Sacred though at other times when the advice of Parliaments with their own consent is by the King pass'd into a Law if it contraâ—icts either their Principles or their Humour and 't is difficult to guess which is the Commander it shall be judged hard or sanguinary or not agreeing with that liberty in which Christ has made us free and a Text uttered at first upon a very far different account shall be as frequently urged as it has been answered We ought to obey God rather than men So that such persons are extremely for Government according to Law when this allows or indulges their Principles and their Practice but conclude it to be unequal and unjust when the same Laws condemn and punish them and they seem to be like a noble Traytor accused and now going to his Trial who walks in state and seemingly with an unconcerned mind nay many times with joy and briskness in his countenance when the back of the Ax is turned towards him but when as he comes back again the edge of the fatal instrument of death looks upon him his face is demure he treads the earth with trembling steps and wishes there had been no Law to condemn him and if he has any sprightliness in his looks his end is only by this significant ceremony to persuade the people that he remains innocent and that the Law is hard by which he is condemned though perhaps before when it served his turn and promotion too nothing was like Government according to Law But to leave this Argument because it may grieve some persons whose principles and zeal are managed suitable to their Secular interest although I fear it must be the effectual reason at last to convince them Let us enquire whether the Prayers and Worship of the Church of England are not to be justified another way This being a publick Worship of Christians Embodied and Constituting the Sacred Society of a Church who with unity of hearts and a suitable uniformity meet together in a place devoted to the service of God and separated from vulgar and profane uses the prayers and service must be allowed by reasonable persons to be such as it ought to be uttered in such general expressions as all may be able to consent unto and say Amen at the close and period And where confessions prayers and thanksgivings are more precisely and particularly managed and he who is the mouth of the Congregation invents his own unallowed prayers and pretends to utter the concernments of all though some may be able to joyn in one part and some in another yet 't is very seldom that any one can consent to all and all perhaps had they time to consider could not give their assent to one period besides those that tell God his own or some general things which are usually declared before he comes to what are called soul searching particulars I have heard of a Quaker who vouchsafing to hear one that was not of his own perswasion and finding that the man who pray'd extempore had laid a great heap of Confessions before him and had been very curious in sorting sins into their several kinds and degrees and uttering all in the name of the Congregation he presently as if he had been used to chop Logick makes his inference in this Dilemma Either this man tells lies or this people are very wicked and resolved to have no more to do with them But another perhaps more severe than he may think his conclusion very reasonable when he supposes and infers that the man prays from his own experience and from his particular defects attributes the same to all mankind and causes a multitude to be partakers of his private sins to petition what he only wants and to give thanks for the benefits which he has received And perhaps upon the consideration of all the mouth of the people may at last be thought the worst member among them all whatever his headship may yet signifie But not to confound Closets with Churches nor yet to grant that a single man can hold a great Congregation in his belly Let us take a prospect of our own Church and see whether we can justifie that without finding faults in others In this we offer up to God all those desires of our minds that are fit for men embodied into a Christian Society and who are partakers of the same Communion We confess the general heads of sin of which all being guilty they can from a short reflection upon themselves truly acknowledge that they have been sharers in And if it should be rendered more particular some only might be guilty and so there would be a Schism in our acknowledgements because all could not give their assent without telling a lie to their Maker and supposing themselves more vile than they are And moreover this way of publick Worship would expose all the professors of Christianity to the contempt of those that are enemies to Religion at least adversaries to that of the Gospel We have also in the Service which the Church of England owns upon our Confession Gods free pardon declared to us in that manner as Christ himself has appointed in his Gospel without such an Auricular confession as may give us Knowledge of the
The reason why I insist not now on such things as these is because the main Subject of my Discourse being prayer only I would not have my inferences transgress the Rule in charging Adversaries with such Errors as are not plainly to be concluded from the premisses It will be sufficient at this time to shew how abominable the Popish allowed prayers are without intermixing the things that attend them Now the Papists must needs offend God with their publick prayers and consequently must enrage instead of appeasing him because they are not suitable to his Sacred word nor that Worship which Christians in the purest times used in their publick Divine Service And this will be confirmed by two reasons 1. Because their publick Prayers are in an unknown tongue 2. Because they pray to creatures when they ought to pray to God only First The Publick Prayers of the Romish Church are in an unknown tongue sometimes unknown to the Priest himself who by the help of accents the advantage he has of hiding his infirmities in those he pretends as he is directed to repeat secretly and by frequent use can untowardly pronounce them But more especially are they unknown to the people at least the generality of them who cannot with any reason be supposed to understand languages beyond what their Mothers taught them unless Mother Church can inspire them with cloven tongues and turn all its Children into Apostles For Latin in which the Roman publick prayers are uttered is now become a learned Language in all those Dominions which the Pope overspreads and shadows with his wings and the gaining of it requires a distinct from vulgar education it being the general Language of no Country in the World and therefore how should the multitude of a Nation understand it Now Publick Prayer as I have shewed before ought to be so composed for matter and words that all who are bound to join in it should fully understand it that they may apprehend before they give their consent to it that so they may heartily agree in each petition and say Amen at the close and period But how can people possibly consent or intend their minds and engage their affections with any reason to such a service which is uttered in a language which they understand not In such a case they may by the imposition of anther blaspheme God when they think that they adore him and wish for a curse instead of a blessing And yet this is the general practice of the Roman Church And would be as it was in England were it established again Though I may notwithstanding without disparagement to any suppose that many that may peruse this writing however many that heard it from the Pulpit cannot pretend to understand Latin And yet this Service is what all persons in the Roman Communion are obliged to under most rigid and severe penalties unless they will renounce the Decrees of that Council beyond the Controversie of our Neighbouring Nation which they must own to be general and infallible though both the adjuncts are falsly applied For the Council of Trent Sess 22. cap. 8. determines for this unreasonable and brutish service and obliges those who understand not the Language But not without due caution in the Decree that a power of dispensing may remain to the Pope in cases that may best serve his turn with those to whom he thinks fitting to appoint Prayers in their vulgar Language who may be inclinable to receive or else to recall banished Popery For the Council has worded their Decree of this as if they were afraid of the Objections of those who on the Apostles side maintain prayers in a Known Tongue but despise the contrary viz. That it has seemed to the Fathers not to be expedient that every where Mass should be laid in the vulgar tongue This not to be expedient is a soft expression which they can when they please explain effectually that it is not lawful and every where when it serves their turn will be easily exchanged for any where But it helps Bellarmin very much in his answer to the argument against the necessity of Latin Service from the Popes Dispensation to the Moravians to use the Sclavonian Language in their Divine Offices and helps forward the like Dispensation to our selves for a present turn in this matter were we so well prepared as a late executed Papist thought to acknowledge the Supremacy of the Pope and in other things to conform so much to the Romish Church that it might in time be again compleatly planted amongst us that so the Pope might receive plentiful fruits from those trees which from Rome he had transplanted into so rich a soil as England is But at last without question whatever might be granted at the first we should be served as Bellarmin tells us the Moravians were even turned wholly to our Latin Service when the Pope had raised Bishops and Priests of his own to advance themselves and curb others and England were well inhabited by Italians But they who can dispense with Gods Law may easily dispense with one of their own Especially an Indulgence in some things may be a convenient instrument to confound the principles which men being used to are loth to renounce all at once and to introduce others gradually till they embrace all Thus 't is usual for one who intends to drive a flock of sheep before him he will let them feed beyond their bounds till he is got on the commanding side of them and then he drives them into what Coop or Pen he pleases And truly we who by the favour of God and piety of Princes Profess the truly Ancient and Apostolick Faith had need walk circumspectly and look about us for fear of those Popish snares that are set for us by Popish Emissaries to catch and imprison us first that they may in triumph lead us Captives to their great Prince and Master For the Pope is like the old Serpent if you once allow him his desired Supremacy he will quickly become Infallible and then our whole Cause is lost Give him but an hole for his head to peep through and it will not be long ere he wriggles in his whole body But Blessed be God we have no need of him though he plainly discovers that he has need of us Nor do we desire to partake in or rob him of his service but to continue in our own most holy Worship And if we can help it he shall not take it away from us 'T is true indeed some Romanists have thought us to be readily prepared for their Communion being qualified with vice and debauchery enough which they themselves have been teaching us for many years taking their advantage from that unlimited Loyal joy which possess'd the Nation at the Kings Return to take his Right and to sit upon that Throne from which he was barr'd by Usurpation and Force But this great Restauration being the handy-work of God the Devil and Rome thought
nor can any man give a true assent to that whose truth he cannot discern nor has any overpowering reason to believe This our own experience upon reflection must fully convince us of Or if any that have immortal souls within them and are quite sunk into rottenness and clay so that they will not or cannot intend their minds to receive satisfaction within themselves yet if they have sense enough to be common Christians of the lowest form in the School of our Lord the authority of his Apostle must convince them and they must on divine revelation believe that praying in an unknown tongue must be nonsence and folly in him that thus offers to God he knows not what and consents to that of which he has no knowledge at all If I know not says S Paul the meaning of the voice I shall be to him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh a Barbarian unto me 1 Cor. 14.11 And verse the 16. When thou shalt bless with the spirit that is as before in an unknown tongue how shall he that possesseth the room of the unlearned say Amen i. e. give his assent at thy giving of thanks since he understandeth not what thou saiest To speak or write more in such a plain case would apparently disparage an Auditory and a Reader and a man might be accused of wasting time and of rendring our adversaries very considerable in the defence of such a point in the management of which they have little or nothing to say for themselves besides this That Latin Service being formerly their custom when it was commonly understood in the Western Empire they think it fitting and honourable to continue it still lest a change might make them lose the credit of Antiquity though the principal reason of uttering Divine Service in this language is gone and becomes an argument that points a quite contrary way and directs all Churches to their vulgar language since the Latin is so far from being the common tongue in which the multitude of men express their thoughts and come to the understanding each other even in those places in which by the Roman Church the publick Service is injoyn'd to be used that the common people do not understand it even in Italy it self But the Church of Rome has one reason for it above all that the great ones will let us know from themselves but yet they do not here in England stop our mouths so that blessed be God we can speak it for them though they had rather that we would still hold our tongues Yet the reason is this Because hiding under an unknown tongue the abomination and false opinions which they practise and uphold in their publick offices their people are kept in great ignorance and dark devotion nourishes them into a great zeal and blind obedience that the Priests may make impressions on them and they may receive and embrace those instrumental principles that pick their Pockets for the advantage of holy Church and empty their Purses into the Popes Coffers And this is the most weighty reason for their religion in those particulars in which it is departed from Primitive Christianity But yet methinks I have so much confidence in the rational natures of mankind that where they could understand they would examine and if they once arrived at that they would quickly reject every Article of the Church of Rome which they have added to the Apostles Creed and what the Reformed Protestant Church of England owns And I am fully perswaded that the generality of the English Nation who cannot if they have been any thing serious but be well acquainted with the necessary points delivered in the Scriptures would so loath and abhor the Roman Breviaries and Mass-Books were they faithfully translated into our common Language so that both parties might sign the Copy that the people would confute them themselves without the toil or pains of another But the Romanists had rather still lurk behind the Curtain deal with the credulous and lock up the Key of Knowledge by keeping the Scriptures from the searches of the people unless they are such particular parts as they think fit to afford them the perusal of This better serves their turn than to permit a bold and inquisitive multitude to view all that they may make discoveries and twattle to one another and so at last make enquiries into those Services of their Church which the Governours are willing should be accounted divine till the people should be able by due search to confute the Roman Prayers by the Scriptures and then in a little time more the Capitol it self must be delivered when they had no more Geese to defend it I see therefore in the Roman way the blind must lead the blind till both together fall into the ditch where I shall at present leave them as to this point of Latin Service till their Seers are able to pluck them out For when error is attended with an obstinate resolution to maintain it even against the testimony of an Apostle the persons thus possessed with it are only to be treated as things insensible not minding the authority by which Christian Religion is established And when people thus present petitions to Almighty God which they cannot so much as pretend to understand 't is plain that they offer the sacrifice of fools and their Priests sacrifice to their own net and 't is in vain to perswade in such a case where the people delight in their own slavery and the Priests love their covetousness too well to forsake the Trade in which they can so easily impose on those whom by such means they keep in ignorance and so make an outside godliness their gain Certain it is that the people under the Roman yoke can only draw nigh to God in their Publick Service with their lips at best when their hearts and minds being under an impossibility of accompanying them must of necessity be far from him and they lose also the blessed influence of all their Publick Prayers on themselves in raising their affections acting their graces mortifying their sins and prompting them to their duty all which prayers well composed uttered and understood must needs effect upon the minds of well inclined Devotionists And so I proceed to another Argument we have against the Publick Prayers of the Romanists That they pray to Creatures when they ought to pray to God alone That God only is to be the object of our prayers in divine worship I have already shewed in the Third Chapter of this Discourse And that the Romanists pray to Angels and Saints departed their Service is so full and frequent an evidence of it that they themselves will not deny it They endeavour therefore to justifie the thing by the bold assertions of their own Authors and without any plain authority but from the Heathens and themselves and without any solid and substantial argument Yet that I may give the Reader an hint or two that none unless
more inferiour constituted only by human fancy to be the representatives of these lest God suffering long by their sins may at last leave them to their own hardness to believe a lie and to a strong delusion to which they are enslaved that at last they may be damned because they have turned the glory of their Creator into the image of a creature beguiling themselves of their reward in a voluntary humility in worshipping of Angels like the Superstion of the Essens among the Jews or the Idolatry of Simon Magus in the times of the Christians which the Apostle rebukes the Colossians for Chap. 2.18 As if men were at this time of the day who have more than enough evidence of the mind of those whom St. Chrysostome mentions in his Homilies on this Epistle that said We must come to God by his Angels and not by Christ because that is an honour too high for us Against which error this holy Father sayes is the chief design of the Epistle to the Colossians I need not I hope ask my Protestant Readers the question which St. Paul propounds to the Romans Chap. 10.14 How shall men call on him in whom they have not believed No more than I need in our daies mention that which follows next How shall ye believe in him whom ye have not heard or how can ye hear without a preacher Only this deserves some small consideration amongst some men though not any with others who have a true Ministry How can they preach that are not sent 'T is plain even by the Confessions of some Romanists themselves that there is no precept or plain example for prayer either to Saints or Angels in the Scriptures Yea they bear testimony that Sacred petitions to both have been rejected even by those unexceptionable Saints and Angels to whom they were offered or actually made Let not any therefore among all the Protestants of the true Established Church of England as God has formerly complained of others leave the fountain of living waters to hew to themselves broken Cisterns that can hold none But let us stand fast in the unity of the Spirit in a true holy Catholick Communion in our prayers professions and Christian Sacraments And with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel and let us nothing be terrified by our adversaries as St. Paul exhorts us Philip. 1.27 Thus continuing in the Communion of that Church to which we do belong and contending earnestly for that faith which was delivered to the Saints God will either preserve us by his power from being ground by those two Milstones betwixt which we seem at present to be placed and give us an happy deliverance from our Controversies and troubles or assuredly give us a Crown of Glory above the reach of Papists or Fanaticks Arise O Lord Let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee But do thou arise also and have mercy upon Sion For the time to favour it yea the set time is come So we that are thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever and will alwaies be shewing forth thy praise from generation to generation CHAP. XI THe most ungrateful task is still behind whilst I must argue with my Brethren according to the Flesh my dear Country-men and fellow Protestants who yet separate from the best Established Church in the world Whilst my last Inference must to my great grief be this That they who now separate from us and yet live among us under the care and protection of the most indulgent Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter And in a Church over which though he spreads his Authority that has her arms open to all penitents and when they become void of all hypocrisie She loves her Neighbours as she does her self Yet it will appear from the former Discourse that those who yet continue their separation from us under the pretence of greater Reformation and a more pure and Evangelical Worship do not pay homage in their prayers to the great God in such a manner as is suitable to his Attributes mans dependance and that infinite distance betwixt their Creator and themselves For if we consider him as the Maker of men endowed with all Glory and Perfection whose Greatness is commensurate to his Being and both Infinite whose Power admits neither restraints or limits besides what falsehood and contradictions may imply in which eternal truth bounds it self his Essence not admitting any imperfection Who is Omniscient and searches the inmost recesses of the minds of men views our retirements and discerns our thoughts afar off whose goodness also has been so extended as well in Creation as Providence that he justly commands and merits too all the profound Worship and Adoration which our most quick and sprightly invention guided either by pure natural reason or by rules of his own Prescription is able to prompt us to the composition of And lastly He is a God of that infinite ability to revenge indignities offered to him that he can as easily punish the insolence of those that either contemn or neglect his worship or render himself mean by it as he can incourage the devout or bless those who with humility petition it So that reflecting on the loose and irregular prayers of those who are to be considered in this Inference we must as I suppose conclude without any great difficulty that upon the view of the matter and circumstances of their devotion comparing it with what is due to so great a Majesty who is the Sovereign Commander and Disposer of the Universe the worship of those whom I am now to deal with does not comport with the greatness and Supreme excellencies of himself And this is far more easie to discern than to limit or prescribe a suitable devotion For as Cotta saies in Cicero de nat Deor. lib. I. Mihi non tam facilè in mentem venire solet quare verum sit aliquid quam quare falsum I cannot so readily give a reason why any thing is true as why it is false And most men must consent to this For how many of us have great and exalted conceptions of persons and things till experience makes nearer and more strict inspections Thus the Mountain Olympus whose height is so extolled by the Poets and ancient Greeks that it is said to exceed the Clouds and lodge its top in the very Skies is yet said by Plutarch in Aemilian that upon the measure of Xenagoras it was but a mile and an half and about seventy paces perpendicular So some men that separate from us manage their devotion with so much zeal and heat and thick language with clouds about it attended with such a mournful tone and direful expressions that an uninterested person must at the first of necessity think that though their most profound abasements laid them on the ground yet their voices must reach the highest Heavens and their earnest and most passionate
the conceptions of their minds to an utterance of our petitions in an unknown tongue And it concludes indeed against the Publick Service of the Papists in Latin and justifies our own in English As I have already shewed But it can neither strengthen the Enthusiast nor detract from the worth or reputation of a well composed Liturgy And that this is the true meaning of this Scripture and the real opposition which is here made of Spirit to understanding and the difference betwixt them appears plainly from the naked words of the nineteenth Verse without any Paraphrase upon them For saies the Apostle I had rather speak five words with mine understanding that by my voice I may teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue And though St. Chrysostom's interpretation of the whole does not in every part agree with this Yet he expounds Spirit by the gift of tongues But if men will still evidence their vanity by defending their extravagancies by Texts of Scripture which have been won from them as often as they have trump'd them up to the world and urge that in the twelfth of Zechariah Where God promises to pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications c. They will gain but little countenance from hence for their irrational and loose way of worship Though as a neat Commentator of their own descants upon it it should be poured out as by whole Pailfuls Trapp in loc For nothing can be concluded from this Text but that the time should come in which God would by his benign operations confer so much favour to the Jews that they who were hardned through their own infidelity to the affronting and Crucifying the blessed Jesus should so relent for their former wickedness that they would pray to God and petition for their pardon when they came to be convinced that the very person whom they put so death under the notion of an Impostor was indeed the promised Messiah And so it no more concludes that the Holy Ghost is promised under the Gospel to dictate matter and expressions to all those who devoutly pray than it proves all Saints under this dispensation to be perfect Jews that crucified their Saviour Nor can all the Hebrew and Greek and Latin in the world make either out from this Text. Nay such Doctrine can no more be founded on this Prophecy of Zechariah than that the Holy Ghost should also dictate matter and words in Preaching too and render all Sanctified mens Sermons as much the word of God as the Scriptures can be infer'd from that Promise in the second of Joel where God saies I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie Since this was fulfilled on that eminent day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost visibly descended on the Apostles to enable them to speak divers languages and to work Miracles c. for the propagation and confirmation of the Gospel and accordingly 't is limited by St. Peter Acts 2.16 If men will still trifle with the Scriptures let them allow also women to be Preachers as well as men Because in the promise it is said that Daughters as well as Sons shall Prophesie 'T will only as 't is usual with some men prefer the Old Testament to the New and set a Prophet and an Apostle together by the ears that we may judge the advantage to which we please as he gratifies either our humour or our interest But suppose our extempore men should flie from Scripture to the succeeding Writers among the Christians as I know not but they may when they find any thing that makes for them and tell us that all this worship which we declaim against is justifiable by the practice of the Primitive Christians who living near the times of our Saviour and his Apostles must needs understand their Doctrine and their practice better than we who live in an Age so far off and quote some passages from the Ancient Fathers to justifie their extravagant devotions now I only reply 1. We grant that in the first times of Miraculous operations before the Christian Church was well setled in the World the Spirit did as well dictate prayer to some for the help of others as it inspired some to deliver the Christian Doctrines and faith that they might be derived downward to posterity But all this ceased afterwards when the reasons of it ceased when the Canon of the new Law was compleated and Knowledge and Parts became the fruits of liberal education and the Spirts co-operation with human industry 2. That the Fathers give no countenance to this extempore wild way of prayer And the later Patrons of this conceived method when they urge any expressions from them are fain to squeeze a few particular passages hard either by a false rehearsal Or else by Criticising and large interpretations they draw their words off from the sence which the subject matter and coherence of the place does willingly afford them 3. That this way of arguing in this affair is disclaimed by a late Nonconformist writer who is eminent both in venting and darkning too these extempore prayers And almost as ancient as any now living in defending them Nay and he has reason too when the contrary opinion as he saies becomes opposite to his own experience But to give him his due he admits Scripture in this Controversie And would have men to believe that all the commands for prayer in the Sacred writings are so many laws to injoin their own extempore way and method Yet though he adventures at some promises I cannot find that he meddles with the commands so as to appropriate any one to extempore prayer Though he is very good at Criticism and Inference But natural Enthusiasm when riveted by custom skulks so within a man that though possess'd with it he does not know it And 't is such another thing as what the vulgar call Arminianism which a man may sometimes be charg'd with when he yet pleads not guilty As I have heard of another great Writer whose Aphorisms when Dr. Hammond had perused presently replied This man is an Arminian but he does not know it 4. If any will defend these conceived publick prayers from Antiquity I wish they would also put other matters in Controversie betwixt them and the Church of England upon the same trial and permit the Government of the Church of Christ to be also determined this way Yet Lastly these things are here set down not because we have any cause of fear from what can fairly be urged for extempore prayer out of any Ancient Author of undoubted Credit the quotations having frequently been answered But more especially because they are just now explain'd in the Second Part of certain Cases of Conscience resolded concerning the lawfulness of joining with forms of Prayer in publick worship The view of which since the composure of this small Discourse
of the mischievousness and sinfulness of Schism lib. 5. Cap. 21. Schism saies he is a grievous sin 1. Because it is against Charity to our Neighbour 2. B cause it is against the Edification of him who makes the Separation in that he deprives himself of Communion in Spiritual good 3. Because it is against the honor of Christ in that as much as in it lyeth it takes away the Unity of his Mystical Body And 4. It makes way to Heresie and separation from Christ from whence they conclude that Schism is a sin by all good men to be abhor'd Nay if we look into Pag. 112. we shall find that when men separate from what they acknowledge to be a true Church 'T is Schism And to set up a Church against a Church and as the Ancients call'd it Altar against Altar This is the weakning the hands of the Church hindering the glorious work of Reformation causing the building of Gods House to cease and is a Deformation instead of a Reformation Upon such a dismal state and farther prospect of worse times if any could be so within less than a year after the Throne followed the downfal of the Episcopal Church of England these London Ministers gathered together in a Provincial Assembly thus exhort the people Pag. 110. After their being humbled for the evils that so much abounded for which as they say even those in their daies of Reformation the Earth mourned and the Heavens were black over them when they had mourned seriously every one a part Their desire and advice to them is this That you would put away the iniquity that is in your hand That you would be tender of the Oaths which you have taken and those which may be offered to you That you would prize the Publick Ordinances and reverence your Ministers That you would sanctifie the Sabbaths and hate Hypocrisie and self-seeking That you would receive the love of the truth lest God give you over to believe lies That you would not trust to your own understanding lest God blind your understanding That you would conform to the truths you already know that God may discover to you the truths ye do not know That ye would not have such itching ears as to heap to your selves Teachers nor embrace any Doctrines for the persons sake That ye would seek the truth for the truths sake and not for any outward respect That ye would study Catechism more diligently by degrees be led on to perfection And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity These were the excellent exhortations of a Province of Divines then separated from the Episcopal Church of England And why should not such admirable instructions and advice be prevalent in this paper since they are transcribed from their own To conclude therefore in the language of this Provincial Assembly If we are a true Church of Christ which the late Doctrine of occasional Communion sufficiently proves and Christ holdeth Communion with us why do any separate from us If we are the Body of Christ do not they who separate from the Body separate from the Head also If the Apostle calls those divisions in the Church of Corinth by the name of Schisms 1 Cor. 1.10 Though Christians there did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper May not your Secession from us and the profession that you cannot join with us as members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schisms Especially when Churches were gathered out of Churches as this Provincial Assembly there complains If any are willing to see more of this let them peruse the Book And the good God give us all a right understanding in all things FINIS