or Liturgie in the Synagogues at the celebration of the Passeover before the dayes of our Saviour Christ yet Christ never perswaded the people to absent themselves nor did he withdraw himself but resorted to their Synagogues and the Temple as did also his Apostles after his ascension Answ Of the Jewish forms of Prayer we have spoken before And have justly denied that they took up any book prayers devised by others prescribed to them and therefore no marvell if neither Christ nor his Apostles withdrew themselves from them seeing the outward face of administrations was only of Gods Ordinances not of the inventions of men at the least so farre as not to draw them into fellowship or communion with them therein the corruptions sound amongst them both in doctrine and worship Christ and his Apostles did freely bear witnesse against both to themselves and the people Disc It is not lawfull to separate from the Churches or assemblies of the Saints in whose fellowship we may serve God with an holy worship and believe in him with an holy faith for if a prayer conceived in the heart and uttered with the voice be a pure service of God the same read upon a book becometh not impure to them that hear it with holy affections Answ We do not separate from the Church and assembly of the Saints but willingly joyn with you in every part of your holy worship and in every doctrine of your holy faith only we withdraw our selves from such parts of your administrations wherein we cannot joyn with you but wrap our selves into the fellowship of such sin which in our consciences we see committed by you How the same Prayer conceived by the spirit of a Minister and pronounced in his own and in the peoples name to God may be a pure service to God yet the same written in a book and prescribed to others to be read by them as their Prayers may be an unlawfull form of worship hath been shewed above it is wearisome to repeat the same things so often Disc Lastly The Scribes and the Pharisees sinned grievously in corrupting the Law with their false glosses and defiling the worship of God with their own inventions neverthelesse the faithfull held fellowship and communion with them in the worship of God and that by the approbation of the Prophets and of Christ himself but surely the health of the Church is more crazed by such great infirmities than by the onely toleration and use of a prescript form of prayer Answ The substance of this objection hath been answered even now the faithfull did and might lawfully joyn in worshiping God in his own Ordinances notwithstanding the accidentall pollution which the Scribes and Pharisees brought in both in doctrine and worship for corruptions in doctrine do not draw the hearers into fellowship of the same faith if they beware of the leaven of such doctrine and bear witnesse against it in time and place according to God as for the pollutions in worship they chiefly lay in their private superstitious devotions of washing their hands and pots and cups and brazen vessels and not in their outward administrations of publique Ordinances especially in such wherein their act and the peoples was offered up together with one accord but there is not the like reason of publique Prayer wherein both Minister and people do all joyn together as one man with one accord where any known sin in the outward administration of the Minister is the sin of all the people that joyn with him The Lord give us hearts to deny our selves and to sit close to him that he may delight to lead us on by his spirit of truth in all truth and goodnesse and still delight to be mercifull to us in pardoning and healing all our forms and present pollutions for his holy Names sake in Jesus Christ Amen Amen FINIS
so is the other a similitude of a Psalm Answ First the singing of Psalms whereof you speak in a form of words devised by men may have a double meaning for either you mean such Psalms as are compiled by ordinary men or else Psalms penned by the Prophets but translated by ordinary men into English verse to be sung in the Churches If you speak of the former then this is our first answer 1. We see as little warrant for singing Apocrypha Psalms in the Church as for praying prescript Lyturgies of men in the Church and for both together as little warrant as for reading Apocrypha Scriptures in the Church but if you speak of the latter then our second answer is this 2. There is an observable difference between singing of Psalms and Prayer as also between the Psalms penned by the Prophets and by other ordinary men for in the peoples joyning in prayer there is no more required but their going along in silence with consent of the heart and in the end of the prayer expressing their consent in voyce by saying Amen 1 Corinth 14.16 But in singing of Psalms all the people of God as spiritual Priests do sing with voyce together according to Isa 52.8 which putteth a necessity upon a set form of Psalms else one should sing one thing and another another thing which would instead of harmony breed confusion but there is no necessity of a set form of Prayer for if the words of the Ministers prayers be understood of the people they go along joyn with him in silent consent as well in a form conceived for the present occasion as in a set form of words whereunto they have been accustomed besides the Psalms penned by the Prophets as by David and the rest being of divine inspiration and part of the holy word of God which we are commanded should dwell in us plenteously and wherewith we are to teach and admonish our selves and one another by the singing of them unto the Lord we have therefore a lawfull warrant to sing such Psalms even in such a form of words as they are translated into by men when yet we have not the like warrant to pray the forms of Prayer devised by ordinary men which are not of divine inspiration but of humane invention and injunction Psalms and Scripture translated are still as truly the Word of God in the translation as in the originall language Disc But say you If a man be disposed to reason against the singing of Psalms he may a great deal more plausibly argue that the infancy of the Church when God saw a set form to be necessary he inspired holy men to pen such as might be of use for that time when such worship was approved and therefore seeing at this day no such forms are given us of God they are not to be allowed Answ Such an argument though you think it were plausible yet indeed it is lesse defenceable for the truth is set forms of Psalms are as necessary now as they were then for seeing it is necessary that all the people should joyn in voyce as well as in heart in the singing of Psalms It is therefore necessary they should know before-hand the same set form of words in which they should all joyn and seeing a set form of words in Psalms is necessary it pleased the Lord to devise himself to our hands a set form of them by his holy Prophets who being carried by the Holy Ghost farre above humane infirmity and possibility of erring they have set down such forms as were fit not only for the infancy of the Church but for the publique use of all Churches in all ages and for all occasions which cannot be said of any compilements de vised by ordinary men Disc But say you a set form of words is as necessary in preaching and publique prayers as in singing this or that form is necessary in neither a set form is necessary in both the people cannot sing with the Minister unlesse what is sung be represented to them in a set form of words nor can they joyn in prayer or attend to the word preached unlesse the matter of praying or preaching be conveyed to them in a set form of words Answ You confound a form of words understood and a set form it is true no man can joyn in prayer or attend unto the Word preached unlesse the matter of prayer or preaching be conveyed in a form of words understood but yet without a set form of words they may the words being delivered in a known tongue By set forms we understand standing forms such as come to be used again and again day by day in the same words common sence maketh it evident men may joyn in prayer and attend to the Word preached as well in a new form of words according to the present occasion which he never heard before as in a set form which he heareth every day Disc But you demand Is a Minister able to expresse the necessities of the people or the doctrine of salvation in a form of words devised and studied by himselfe and is he not able by meditation and study to dictate and compose a Psalm to be sung by the people as occasion requireth and if so is not a stinted form of singing devised by men an arbitrary help to him and so forbidden Answ 2. Many a good Minister that is able to expresse the necessities of the people or the doctrine of salvation in a form of words devised and studied by himself is not able so to dictate and compose a Psalm to be sung by the people each several occasion no though he should meditate and study hard for it Poetry is not every good Scholars faculty nor the penning of holy Psalms the skill of every good Minister nor is it required that it should For seeing the Holy Ghost hath already dictated and composed to our hands divers forms of Psalms for all occasions it would be superfluous for Ministers to take up their meditations and studies about the inventing other forms though they had gifts fit for it and therefore if such as have the skill to pen Psalms do nevertheless sing the forms of Psalms set and composed by David and other Prophets as they cannot be said therein to make use of the inventions of men but of Gods institutions so neither can they be said to sin upon the other respect which you mention because they use an help to them not necessary whereas others that want their skill do lawfully use Davids Psalms because such an help to them is not arbitrary but necessary no no we do not approve of that distinction between arbitrary and necessary in that sense to that purpose in that sense I say for I here see you work upon an equivocation in this word necessary For there is a double necessity spoken of in this case a set form of worship may be said to be necessary either through sinfull defects in men who should be
able but are not to conceive a form of worship of themselves or else through the nature and condition of the worship it selfe which cannot be performed but in a set form whatsoever the gifts of men be in this latter sense not in the former is the singing of Psalms in a set form necessary for unlesse a Psalm be expressed in a set form of words and so set before the people all the people cannot joyn in voyce as well as heart singing and praising God together in the same words we admit of no necessity of any set forms of prayer or other worship in the former sense as concerning such men unfit to be Ministers of the Gospel as want gifts to conceive a prayer according to the present occasion but a set form of Psalms we allow as necessary in the latter sense as necessary by consequence from divine institution for if singing of Psalms be as it is of divine institution and if Psalms be a kind of spiritual Poetry and therefore to be put into verse If it be also of divine institution that all the people should joyn as well in voyce as in heart in singing of Psalms and that in a language known and understood by themselves then it will be requisite and necessary by divine institutions for he that instituteth the end instituteth the necessary means that leadeth to the end that in our English Churches the Psalms be translated into English verse or metre and received of the Churches in a set form that so all the people may joyn with one voyce and heart to praise the Lord together in the same words but there is not the like necessity of a set form of words in prayer For in prayer as hath been said there is no more required of the people then when they hear the words of the Minister to go along with him in heart and in the end of the prayer to answer with one accord in voyce Amen And so whatsoever is required of the people by divine institution for joyning in prayer is fully attained without a set form of words in prayer which cannot be attained in singing without a set form of words in Psalms Disc It is said of prayer Christ hath given gifts to his Ministers for preaching and praying hath he not for the singing of Psalms also If it be a dishonour to Christ as some affirme that they should use a form of prayer devised by others Is it not a dishonour likewise if they shall use a form of singing devised by others Answ It hath been answered above that though God hath given gifts to his Ministers for preaching and praying yet he hath not given to many the gift of inditing Psalms also and yet neither is it any dishonour to Christ nor sinfull defect in his Ministers that he hath not so furnished them seeing he himself hath sufficiently furnished them with all set forms of Psalms by the Ministry of his Prophets divinely inspired for the service of the Church and it is no dishonour to Christ or his Ministers that they should take up forms of words devised by him for his own worship Disc If there be any such necessity of a set form of Psalmes as is pretended because some Ministers are not enabled of themselves to furnish the necessities of the Church It should rather exempt them from the practise of singing Psalms then give liberty to a devised form for it is a rule in divinity that against a general negative precept no particular affirmative can be lawfull unlesse that particular be warranted in Scripture c. But against this supposed generall negative precept forbidding all devised helps and furtherances in Gods worship there is no particular warrant alowing it in singing of Psalmes Answ It is not a supposed but a reall negative precept that generally forbiddeth all devised helps and furtherances in Gods worship meaning helps and furtherances devised by men without warrant from the word For this is indeed the proper true meaning of the second Commandement as hath been shewed above but we deny that set forms of Psalms recorded in Scripture as helps and furtherances devised by men but given by the Holy Ghost and though the translation of the Psalms both in English and in verse be by men yet not without warrant from the Holy Ghost who hath commanded that the Word of God should dwell in us plenteously teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymnes and spiritual Songs Coloss 3.16 who hath also commanded that we should sing with understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 which the people could not do to their own understanding or the understanding of their brethren if the Psalms were not translated into their own mother tongue and when the translation doth fitly expresse the sense of the originall Psalms we have warrant also to make use of the translation though compiled by ordinary men as we see the Apostles did many times make use of the translation of the Septuagints provided the translation be not imposed upon us as that was not upon and that liberty be still left to correct or reform whatsoever shall be found in the translation to swerve from the true meaning and just weight of the originall Scripture besides it hath been shewed above in opening the meaning of the second Commandement that though the negative precept forbid all helps and means of Gods worship devised by men without warrant from the word yet not the help of Tongues and Art which not the wit and will of man but the wisdom of God hath provided as necessary helps for the furtherance of sundry parts of Gods worship The Scriptures cannot be translated into our Mother Tongue without the help of Grammer nor the Psalms into verse and metre without the help of Poetry nor sung without the help of Musick naturall Musick at the least and therefore these kinds of helps we make use of as not being means of worship devised or suggested by the wit or will of man but as they are indeed prepared and ordained according to the light of nature by God And so not falling under the generall negative precept which forbiddeth all humane Inventions and Injunctions in the worship of God Disc Now whether the pretended necessity of a set form should exempt from the generall negative precept forbidding devised formes or from the affirmative precept of singing Psalmes let them judge who put the Exception Answ We doubt not to judge it safe to obey the affirmative precept of singing Psalms in a set form of words though translated into English and into verse by men because set Psalms are ordained of God and their translation into English verse is necessarily implyed and warranted by God himself And yet neverthelesse we do not pretend any necessity to exempt any such set form from the generall negative precept which falleth under the prohibition of it for these the negative precept did never intend to prohibit You need not therefore to wonder as you do in the following words
why such a necessity as hath been opened of a set devised form of singing should excuse a set form of Psalms and yet not excuse a set form of prayer but rather excuse the people from joyning in it Answ Because there is no necessity at all of a devised set form of prayer unless it be through the sinfull defect of the Ministers gifts in Prayer which is such a necessity as God abhorreth both it and the Minister for it But the necessity of a set form of Psalms is such which God himself hath put for the Celebration of that service with one accord both in heart and voyce as hath been shewed and therefore you might well have forborn that confident expression Disc If Christians shall not exempt themselves from the stinted Prayers used in the Congregation untill a materiall difference be shewed in these particulars and that distinction of Arbitrary and necessary devised forms be approved by solid Reasons and holy Scriptures the world shall end I am confident before they shall separate For you see a materiall difference in these particulars between the necessity of a set form of Psalms and the necessity of a set forme of Prayer The necessity of the one is from Gods Ordinance and therefore warrantable The necessity of the other is from mans Ignorance and such ignorance as maketh him unfit for the Ministeriall Office and therefore sinfull As for the distinction of Arbitrary and necessary devised forms in your sence we neither use it nor approve it And therefore have no cause to bring either holy Scriptures or solid Reasons for the proof of it But in that sence wherein we use it the distinction is so manifest from what we have said already that we think your self will require no further proof of it CHAP. V. Answering to the fourth Reason Disc YOur fourth Reason may be thus contracted If the Spirit of God do work by means and if he stir up good desires yet giveth not ability to expresse our desires in fit and significant words Then it is lawfull for us to use all godly means to stir up the graces of God in us and to premeditate how to utter our Requests in such a form and manner as may best serve for our quickning and the edification of others and if the use of a premeditated form of words in prayer do not stint the Spirit a set form of Prayer cannot be injurious to the Spirit grant the one the other will follow Answ If the speech be of publique prayer the same spirit that giveth the Minister ability to deliver a Sermon in fit and significant tearms doth in like sort give ability to expresse his desires in Prayer in fit and significant tearms no man is called of God to be a Minister of his Church but he is as well apt to Pray as apt to Preach But if the speech be of private persons it is true many good souls have better desires than utterance In regard of which defect or without such defect we willingly condescend to you It is lawfull yea and necessary to him to use all godly means to stir up the graces of God in him and to premeditate how to utter his requests in such sort as best serves for his own quickning the edification of others But this we deny that the using of a prescript form of Prayer upon a book devised and imposed by one man upon another to be used as their Prayer is a godly means to stir up the graces of God in himselfe or to edifie others For that which the Holy Ghost hath not sanctified in his Word for the stirring up of the graces of God in a mans self or others that is not a godly means for such an end But throughout the Scriptures we cannot find any where that the Holy Ghost hath sanctified such a means to such an end And then it is but an Image which will rather teach a form of godlinesse than edifie to the power of it Disc Peradventure they would creep out by saying the Spirit of God is our only helper in the time of Prayer so that though at other times we might use helps to stir up the graces of the Spirit yet not in time of prayer But this distinction is not found in Scripture neither can be deduced by any sound reason from thence The Spirit of God is at all times the sole mover and enabler of us to pray and the use of lawfull means and such as sute with the nature of prayer are at no time unlawfull as it is fit we meditate and read before we pray so it is lawfull in prayer to kneel and lift up our hands and eyes to use the help of the voyce and the benefit of a Christian friend to stir up affection Therefore we may dispute for the lawfullnesse of book Prayer thus if it be lawfull to use externall helps in time of prayer the better to stir up affections then book prayer is not to be condemned Answ To creep out being a borrowed speech from worms It being put upon us holdeth us forth as worms and not as men yea worse than worms Serpents rather than Worms That being compassed in with truth are willing to creep out by any evasion rather than to submit to the authority of the truth But let our reverend and godly brother be intreated not to deal such measures to his Brethren Least the God and Father of us both be displeased and stir up others to returne like measure to you heaped up pressed down shaken together our plain and simple Answer without creeping or shifting Is this that it is lawfll to use any externall or internall helps either before Prayer to prepare us for it or in Prayer to quicken or inlarge us in it provided they be such means and helps as God hath sanctified to such an end at such a time As we readily grant the help of books and meditation before Prayer so we do grant also the help of holy and reverent gestures in Prayer as bowing down the knees and lifting up of the hands and eyes and voyce the presence and assistance of a Christian friend for all these God hath sanctified to help the inward affections of the heart in prayer do but shew that God hath sanctified Book-prayers imposed upon us for our prayers and that by the members of other Congregations and we will neither creep nor start away But willingly blesse the Lord for his goodnesse to you in this case as well as in many others like as Phineas and the Congregation of Israel blessed God for the Rubenites and Gadites that were able to give so good an account of their actions beyond the expectation of their brethren Jos 22. Disc In prayer penned by a godly and well experienced Christian the case of a distressed soul may more pithily and amply be deciphered and anatomized then he of himselfe is able to do it and in such a case to deny him this lawfull help is to take away
the Crutch from the lame and bread from the hungry Answ In case a distressed soul do meet with a prayer penned by a godly and well experienced Christian and do find his own case pithily and amply deciphered and anatomized therein we deny not but his heart and affections may go along with it and say Amen to it And thus far may find it a lawfull help to him but if you set a part such a prayer to support him as a crutch in his prayers as without which he cannot walk straight and upright in that duty or if he that penned that prayer or others that have read it do injoyn it upon him and forbid him to pray especially with others unlesse he use that form this instead of a crutch will prove a cudgell to break the bones of the Spirit in prayer and force him to halt in worshipping God after the precepts of men as it hath been said before so it may be again remembred here a man may help his spirit in meditation of his mortallity by beholding a dead mans scalp cast in his way by Gods providence but if he should set a part a deaths head or take it up as injoyned to him by others never to meditate or conserre with others about his mortality and estate of another life but in the sight and use of the deaths head such a soul shall find but a dead heart and a dead devotion from such a means of mortification if some forms of Prayer especially such as gave occasion to this Dispute do now seem to be as bread to the hungry we say no more but this then hungry souls will never be starved that never want store of such like bread as this is Disc The ample and particular laying out of our necessities doth ease the heart and move affections and when this may be better done by the help of a Book in prayer then of our selves it is senselesse to accuse the use hereof as a lip-labour and a quenching of the spirit he stinteth not the Spirit that labours to blow the coals of grace c. Answ It is true he stinteth not the Spirit nor quencheth him that useth any means sanctified by the Spirit to blow the coals of grace but this we deny that a stinted form of prayer upon a book devised by men and enjoyned to be used as the prayers of a Christian soul is a means sanctified by the Spirit to blow the coals of his grace or that the repeating of such a set form of Prayer though ample and particular in laying out his necessities will ease his heart or move his affections according to God God doth not delight ordinarily to breath in the Masterly injunctions of brethren upon brethren or of one Congregation upon another especially in such things whereof we have neither precept nor president in the Word Disc He doth not substitute his Christian friend in the place of the word and Spirit who not able to lift up his soul to God by reason of straightnesse of heart and grievous pressure doth crave his help and assistance in prayer and may not a godly Book supply the want of a Christian companion Answ It is an ordinance of God to crave the help of the Prayers of our brethren and to joyn with them shew the like warrant for Prayer upon a book prescribed to us and then we will grant a godly book may supply even in this case the lacke of a Christian companion If a Minister be not able to preach by reason of the straightnesse of his heart and grievous pressure he may get his Christian friend to preach for him but he may not make use of a godly homily enjoyned to him by others to supply the lack of a Christian friend Disc Why should it be a sin to read or pronounce a godly form of Prayer is it for that it is read and pronounced or because a man cannot lift up his heart in faith unto God when he uttereth his requests in a stinted form of words to assigne the former is superstition To say the latter is to offend against common experience Answ We do not say it is a sin to read or pronounce a godly form of Prayer but to read a form of Prayer devised by others and to set it a part to read being devised by others enjoyned to me as my Prayer This is sin not because it is pronounced for all publique Prayer is pronounced nor alwayes in private because it is read for as hath been said a man may go along in his spirit and be affected with some Prayer which occasionally he readeth and may lift up his own heart in it to the Lord but a sin it is as it is set apart by himselfe for his Prayer or as it is so enjoyned to him by others and in publique it is of sin both because it is read as the Prayer of the Church and so another book brought into the Church besides Gods Book And because it is devised not by the gift of Gods Spirit in themselves but in others and also because by other it is prescribed or enjoyned to be read as the service and worship of God in another Church For we do not find that ever God gave warrant either for the offering up of read Prayers to God as the ordinary prayers of the Church and least of all for Prayers prescribed and enjoyned by one Church unto another It is so far off from superstition to affirm this that we look at it as a superstition to deny it for to speak of superstition according to the true nature of it and not according to the old Etymologie If superstition be cultus supra statutum there is none of all these kinds whether as read upon a book in the Congregation for their ordinary Prayers or devised by men of other Congregations for that end or as imposed upon us by them but they are all of them and each one of them cultus supra statutum worships and helps and forms of worship which never came into Gods heart to allow for his statute and worship Disc Will any man object that read prayer is not Gods Ordinance It hath been answered already that prayer is the ordinance of God but whether our prayers be onely conceived in heart or uttered by words whether in our own or other words whether by pronouncing or reading that is not appointed when spake he one word of prayer within Book or without in this or that form of words Answ Reply hath been made hereto before as Prayer is an Ordinance of God so are all the lawfull helps and means and forms of Prayer God hath plainly expressed his allowance of Prayer conceived in the heart and of prayer uttered and pronounced by words both in our own words and in the words of others whom God calleth to be our mouths in the present assembly but of set forms of read prayer devised by men of another Congregation and prescribed and imposed upon others it may