Scabb who start in their sleep as if they had gotten Buggs about them and not only delight themselves in dreams but greedily impose the notions of their pillows and the dictates of their disturbed bodies on others When upon a more strict enquiry they may justly attribute all to fancy and the most unaccountable imagination If these things are so our faith certainly is not now less precious nor ought it to be attended with inferiour regard howsoever it may be despised by the ignorant or prophane nor must the Argument of the Council be less valued but more Since this Mystery of iniquity in propagating false Doctrine together with Schism and Rebellion too in extempore prayer is mixed with so much pride in the deliverer and so easily works upon the melted and ductile judgements of the hearers that both are deceived if they are not a little Knavish And when matters are come to this pass I can conclude no less than that if this be permitted the blind will still lead the blind 'till we all fall together into the Ditch when error and mistakes must lead the multitude and triumphantly captivate the minds of the simple which every where are the greatest number But give me leave farther to recommend one consideration more against this extempore and rash way of publick prayer which seems to render it unworthy of the Deity as much as unbecoming men who yet pretend to consider in all things but this And that is because when men offer to the great Majesty of the Universe such unconsidered and unpremeditated devotion they demonstrate to the world that there is but little awe and dread upon their minds of that greatness and power of him to whom they make their Addresses and it must cause strangers to their Religion on to believe that the God whom they worship either does not regard what they offer or else has given them a large liberty to talk to him in what manner they please without danger or punishment to any of them And what a God he will then be concluded to be is obvious to every ones consideration and inference What will an Heathen say in this case but that if the fear of the Gods introduced Religion into the World These men having no fear banish Religion and the Gods together For can that person own the Christians God who in publick evidences so little fear and reverence to him Can he dread the displeasure of his Prince or any other person with whom he converses who values not what he saies to him neither regarding the method or significancy of his words or the phrases by which he represents his mind And can any man who allows himself time to retire and consider with nothing but his own thoughts about him conjecture or be positive in affirming that any dread of the Divine Majesty has made due impressions upon such minds which determining their Spirits to their own tongues speak sudden and unpremeditated language to him This must of necessity very often at least be rash and unadvised Not fit to be presented to so great a God as all describe Jehovah to be Because it will very frequently be accompanied with an indecency of phrase unsoundness of expression or at least an immethodical loose composure He that does but send a message to another especially if he is placed some steps above him will be sure to regard the person of him to whom his errant is directed And to mind the main business which he intends How strangely is he concerned if it be a matter of importance to inform his messenger so well in the affair that after he has invented the most apt and proper expressions he can think on that may comport with the quality nay the very humour of the person to whom he sends and has once delivered them to his own servant or another How frequently will he call him back again to re inform him That the weight of his business may not suffer diminution by any light or unbecoming word That the messenger may not spoil his design or the least failure in expression or behaviour obstruct a compliance And shall mankind who are so cautious in secular affairs have very little or no regard to the language in which they utter their wants and petitions unto the great God in whom we live and move and have our beings From whom also we receive the causes of our perpetual subsistence Nay when we are begging from him such things as are of a most great and everlasting concernment to us which if we do not obtain we are ruin'd and damn'd to all eternity In those affairs that we manage with men about which we are so very solicitous the greatest evil that can befall us by any failing or unfortunate miscarriage can consist only in a prejudice to our estate damage to our health a blot to our reputation an abatement of our pleasures and sensual satisfactions Or at most it can but put a period to our lives and cut the threads which in a few daies would grow rotten and break All which things if we did escape for that present season in which we were in danger we are but for a little space repriev'd Because they will suddenly perish of themselves when the fatal hour snatches us from them and Death summons us to the great Tribunal And shall we think it reasonable to be so careful and big with consideration in the managery of these low concerns amongst men that our secular wishes may obtain their ends and yet be so vain and negligent in relation to the welfare of our immortal souls when we petition the great disposer of all things for such favours which are so important to us that if we fail of their possession when we come to die as certainly we must we shall then exchange our abode in this world for such a torment as is unexpressible and yet shall never that we know of admit of an end or relaxation Certainly such men can have little dread of the Divine Majesty who manage their addresses to this Supreme Being with such strange rashness and inconsideration Especially when their petitions include the great concernments of their own and others souls And are offered to that Almighty power which alone is able to grant their desires This plainly argues that neither the value of the one nor the greatness of the other is much esteemed or regarded by them Be not rash with thy mouth saies Solomon and let not thine heart he hasty to utter any thing before God For God is in heaven and thou on earth therefore let thy words be few Eccl. 5.2 And if this Text by a narrow and subtil interpretation should be restrained to vows only Yet the reason of the thing will be as prevalent in prayer when men on Earth speak to the great God in Heaven For the distance will be still the same betwixt us And our contempt and his revenge no farther off We must not therefore be rash in this
workmanship of his hands and therefore he has a right of being petitioned in that method himself has appointed especially when he has been so favourable to us who are sinful dust and ashes that without his protection should be scattered by the wind and blown away with every storm And we must easily if we are not too obstinate be excited to exercise due affection with devout intention and an awful though brisk fervency in our minds if we reflect upon the dangers we are liable to when we are not guarded by the Divine Providence the wants and necessities of our own frail and weak beings the continual dependence we have upon our Maker who is the great preserver of men and the love and favour which he demonstrates to those who reverently adore him and call upon his name I shall therefore draw the conclusion of this particular by giving some reasons of the former assertion That God alone is to be the object of our prayers when we pretend to make religious addresses CHAP. IV. THe reasons why God alone is to be the object of our prayers are 1. Because that supream veneration which we demonstrate by our solemn and most intense devotion in prayer can be due to none but to him who has all possible perfection which none except the Supream God is endowed with For if there were any perfection or excellency seated in another independent of himself God would then be finite in his excellencies something being supposed of perfection to be inherent in another which is not in himself But all creatures are dependent and limited and could not be creatures if they were not so therefore whatever rayes of glory or perfection shine upon and adorn other beings to make them beautiful in their own kind are emitted from that glorious Sun which produces all things and rules them by his power Hence came that solemn acknowledgement of pious David before all the Congregation Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and the earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand is to make great and to give strength unto all 1 Chron. chap. 29. v. 11 12. This also is most devoutly acknowledged in that great and solemn Fast of the Jews Nehem. 9.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host the earth and all things therein the seas and all that is therein and thou preservest them all and the host of heaven worshippeth thee And therefore who shall not fear thee O Lord say the seven Angels and glorifie thy name For thou only art holy because all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest Rev. 15.4 The creation of all things gives God the soveraignty over all and from his dominion is infer'd his providence and his providence is an argument of our prayer and invocation as an honour due to him from mankind by reason of his own self-existent sufficiency and our dependence upon his eternal Being Because amongst the Gods there was none like him nor are any works like unto his Therefore sayes David all Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name Psal 86.8 9. So that the foundation of mens worship being excellency and greatness and this being originally and independently in God and in him alone it follows that all honour and glory are due to him and none to others but for his sake and by his command and particularly that our divine acknowledgements such as are pretended in our prayers he alone is capable of and consequently must be the object of our devotions Secondly I argue the truth of this from the first notions men have of religion this having its prime relation unto God by this we enter into covenant with him and oblige our selves to be subject to him according to duty incumbent upon mankind by the Laws of their creation For whether the name be derived à relegendo or religando according to the opinion of Isidore or S. Austin it must still be referr'd to God Or if we had rather accept of Tully's definition that it is virtus quae superiori cuidam naturae cultum ceremoniamque affert a vertue that brings worship and ceremony to a certain superiour nature this superiour nature determined by cuidam is but one even the supream and most excellent being Now prayer being an eminent act of religion it follows that it is due to God only I know religion and prayer too are terms of an equivocal significancy and therefore capable of having many distinctions framed concerning them to evade arguments rather than answer them when they endeavour to confine Gods worship to himself when I treat therefore of religion here though in a larger sense it includes other things I intend only those proper acts of duty and worship due to the supream Being flowing from the nature and reason of mankind which our own obligations prompt us to or imposed on us by God himself which he has declared in Sacred Writ in general or particular injunctions and by the inferences that reason may most directly and justly draw from it And when I speak of prayer I suppose it to be a branch of this religion and a solemn part of divine worship Now whatever else besides God himself shares in this detracts from the honour due to him and joyns the Altar of God with Idols For whatsoever else we admit to partake in such religious worship so as to become an object of our prayers becomes a copartner with God himself and the Universe consisting of God and creatures what ever else we regiously invocate must be some of the work of the Almighties hands and then we give his glory to another and his praise to them that are not gods consequently we dispose the Creators honour to his own creatures and detract from the Architect to exalt his building An affront that he will never suffer who is a Jealous God though it be given to the most worthy creature because he has declared against and forbidden it but never signified the lawfulness of it either by his publick command or permission unless because he has suffered Idols till the worshippers sins were ripe for vengeance men will from thence conclude that he approved it And dare bold men make Idols to themselves which God so constantly forbids and hates Or take others into partnership with him when he has declared himself to be the great Jehovah such a Lord as besides him there is none other But further that God is only to be worshipped in religion seems a proposition so firmly rivetted in the natures of men that though many have mistaken their God yet few would
may not pray to a wrong object or to none at all Now in this I fear many may fail and in their prayers make an Idol in their fancies when yet they abhor one that is sensible or material represented to their bodily eyes For we are apt to frame to our selves especially men who are not used to abstraction a representation of God by something which has been exposed to our senses or at least by a confused joyning of many of these objects together But this is worshipping by a false similitude which we justly accuse and condemn others for And yet the difference seems not to be so great whether the similitude of our God in prayer be represented to our external senses or in the Idea and Image of our minds when we frame such an uncouth Picture there and turn our eyes inward to behold it For the fault seems not to be much alleviated when we refuse to frame a carved Image to represent him to whom we pray if in the mean time we create one in our own imagination and then prostrate our selves before it and pray with the direction of our intentions to it Were we capable indeed of framing an Idea of him that is conceiving an exact similitude of God no doubt but it would become our duty as well as our priviledge to make this representation of him to our selves and it might become an excellent mean to keep our souls and minds intent But there are two reasons among others why this is impossible to be done 1. Because God is a Spirit something that is void of all matter not capable of parts or such quantitative extension as bodies have and consequently we cannot frame any positive and proportionate notion of him all together as we can of those things which we have seen but we know his being only by his Attributes which we cannot consider all at once as we can the figure and proportion of a man together with the Being to which these Attributes belong That God is may easily be demonstrated but what manner of Being he is to which these Attributes are fixed will I think be difficult to be apprehended by men to whom the bare essences of things far inferior are so latent and abstruse So that they must be forced to acknowledge God to be incomprehensible For we find that when we retire within our selves and shut up our souls never so much from any communication with exterior objects though we can frame propositions and discourses concerning spirits yet we can have no representations of them or figures of proportion as we can make of other things which have been the objects of our senses though they are at present at a distance from us or shut out from our view by the darkness of the night or a closure of our eyes And to say truth could a spirit be drawn by us under a similitude it must put off its nature and become material whilst we draw an Image of it it must be subject to our external senses Hence was it that our Saviour confuted the worship of the Samaritans who as Mr. Mede has evidenced worshipped God under the similitude of a Dove and plainly told the woman he convers'd with that they worshipped they knew not what because the object to whom they directed their intentions was confined to this resemblance whilst they were at their devotions When all this while God was a spirit and such as pretended to his service ought to address themselves to him under that notion in spirit and in truth and not by any corporal representation And indeed it seems to be very unreasonable to draw lineaments and proportions of God by our own fancies and imaginations when he has no such things in himself nor as Christ sayes has any man seen the Father 2. 'T is impossible for us to frame a positive Idea or any adequate representation of God in our minds because he is an infinite Being and our souls are but of finite capacities And what is finite cannot frame or receive an Idea that is infinite For what is so can no more be limited or circumscribed than an infinite space can be measured or drawn into the number of proportions and this can never be because whatever a thing is measured by must either singly be commensurate to it or else by the reduplication of a shorter measure we must at last sum up its parts and proportions into one intire dimension in breadth depth and length But what infinite measure can we find out that shall stretch it self parallel to what is altogether infinite since what is so has no ends Or what number of measures can possibly reach it If it could be run over it had an end and then how could it be called infinite If it could be supposed that one infinite could be the measure of another and no penetration yet admitted then one must be where the other is not and then neither could be accounted infinite because one bounds and limits the other If a penetration through the whole should be supposed and granted both infinites would be but one and consequently the thoughts of a measure must perish So that for a finite Being to endeavour to comprehend an infinite essence or to frame an Idea or an adequate representation of him is more impossible than for a man to grasp the Globe of Earth in the hollow of his hand to carry the greatest Mountain upon his shoulder when he has torn it from the rest of the earth to drink up the Ocean at one draught or any thing else that is more difficult there being some proportion betwixt things that are finite but between a finite and an infinite none at all When we can contain the Sea and Rivers in an empty-eggshel shoot the fixed Stars down from heaven take a leap from the Earth to the Moon make the least Vessel to hold all the contents of the greatest or do any thing else that is more impossible then may we attempt though we shall not accomplish it to frame a notion and representation of the Deity that may be equal to his infinite being But in the mean time let us beware of a notional Idol whilst we endeavour to avoid a substantial one Yet since the nature and constitution of man is such that we are apt in our invocations of God to frame similitudes and representations of that Being to whom we make our religious addresses It may not be amiss if I here endeavour briefly to inform you what as I conceive ought to be the apprehensions and sentiments of mens minds with reference to the great and supream God to whom they pray that the intentions of their souls may be rationally and also piously directed in this important and necessary duty of their lives To effect this it must be remark'd that the God whom we pretend to worship contains within himself all manner of perfection and consequently he must include all those things which his own declarations have
as may consist with perspicuity how can it be possible that the quickest men subject to many infirmities in their bodies that must and will many times cloud their minds should upon a sudden without a previous and exact consideration word their own and the common desires of other men according to the order and method and importance of things unless they have before hand invented digested and reduced both their matter and expressions into a well studied and set form of prayer He that adventures to pray extempore in a publick audience is so selfish in the matter of his petitions and oftentimes so ridiculous in the expressions that it is impossible all should be able to say Amen to several things petitioned for if they at all use their understandings and do not implicitly joyn upon the authority of the gifted person But you will find more of this in a place of this Discourse more particularly reserved for it I do not deny but matter and words may present themselves on a sudden for private and more brief ejaculations or intermix themselves in our single devotions beyond the form which we may generally use either through the great enlargement of our minds and affections or upon sudden and unexpected necessities or by recollecting in our memories something that was either before omitted or our form does not directly enough or in particulars express But in publick where petitions ought to be so general that all present may say Amen and by this signifie their assent and wishes it is not only convenient but necessary too that men should have some time to judge and be acquainted with what is delivered in their behalf before they give their assent to it otherwise they pray not with judgement and understanding which ought to go before and lead their affections and not permit the passions to sally forth without taking notice of it in the way Now I cannot see how this can possibly be done without a form which those that joyn in may be acquainted with However methink to us Christians there are several arguments to be taken from universal pratice in former ages and reasons also from the holy Scriptures which are sufficient to determine us in this affair and to recommend this method of addressing our selves to Almighty God First The antiquity of publick forms of prayers and benedictions wherein also prayer is included is so evident that both Jews and Christians have agreed in this notwithstanding the introduction of the one religion superseded and evacuated the other Under the Law we find the prescription of a form by God himself wherewith the Priests were to bless the people by invocating and wishing that Gods blessing might descend upon them and they were the authoritative instruments in this method to convey it to them Numb 6. 22 23 c. Nay there is a form of prayer made and prescribed by the same God for those to rehearse who had payed their tythe every third year as any one may see both the form and the command to use it Deut. 26. from v. 12. onward What are the Books of the Psalms of David but a form of Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings which were used in the worship of God in the Temple delivered to the Levites in the several Quires according to the Ordinance of the King of Israel When they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Ezra 3.10 11. Nay and what seems to me matter of wonder these very Psalms translated into English Metre are yet sung in those dissenting Congregations who refuse otherwise to pray to God by a form But to leave the form prescribed to the Jews and accordingly practised because according to some men of quick invention and volubility of language they were a carnal and an heavy people to be led on in a dull and formal way Yet unless the opposers of forms of prayer will be too nimble for the Apostles themselves and account them dull and carnal we shall find forms in the New Testament not only composed but injoyned too None surely can be unacquainted that our Saviour taught his Disciples to pray and gave them a form not only for imitation but for use men do not I hope so learn Christ 'T is true S. Matthew delivers the command After this manner therefore pay ye Mat. 6.9 yet S. Luke recording the same prayer when in another year and on another occasion our Saviour delivered it gives us the account of our Lords prescription in these words When ye pray say Our Father c. Luke 11.1 Yet this difference can only infer these two things 1. That in all our composures of prayer in which we enlarge the words of our petitions suitable to the enlargement of our minds we should have regard and bear some proportion to this pattern which Christ himself has given for our direction And 2. That we should use also the words themselves in which our Saviour has taught us to pray supplying the imperfections of our own invention by the fulness of that prayer which he has prescribed for all true Christians to use And such a method we find followed by the Church till the vanity of some men who thought themselves wiser and they may be accounted more fanciful than the aged designed to suit their expressions and tones to captivate the affections and passions of the multitude for ends at first best known to themselves but since with a vengeance declared to others Though in the mean time they offered unto God fancy for devotion and out of their pretended wisdom the sacrifice of fools And I pray God there be no Knavery in it that was also intended to the people Secondly I argue for forms of prayer to be used in publick because the Minister then is the mouth of the congregation and is to be supposed to utter all by their consent and to pray in their names testifying their unity of affection by their consent in prayer And this so prevails with the great God of infinite goodness that if but two shall agree together on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them by the Father which is in heaven Matth. 18.19 Unity of affection and consent in prayer is that which renders our publick devotions so acceptable to God This gives them strength and vertue causes our prayers to ascend as incense and the lifting up of our hands to be as an evening sacrifice Now there cannot in my opinion be this consent and unity of affection in prayer but where there is an uniformity in calling upon God that all let them come whence they will into any publick place of devotion where a congregation is assembled to offer their joynt prayers to God if they are in communion with and frequent the Churches being before acquainted with the service and prayers which all there make to God they may unite themselves immediately to
that knocketh it shall be opened Matth. 7.7 8. Furthermore he confirms this by the addition of a promise to use his utmost interest in it and his Mediatory authority to bestow what we lawfully pray for And certainly in this state of Christianity we may fully depend upon his Intercession and ability Because all power is given to him both in heaven and in earth See therefore what he ingages for John 14.13 14. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do and doubles the promise for the greater assurance to his Disciples Nay not only so but repeats it with a double asseveration Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Joh. 16.23 24 and 27. Our Saviour was so careful to prevent or scatter all those fears that like a Cloud hung over his Disciples heads upon the apprehensions they might have of his departure from them that he does not only promise to send the Comforter to them but assures them upon the word of truth that when in any straits and exigencies of affairs they should through him make their addresses unto God they should have ready audience and a quick return made to their prayers And therefore he bids them ask and they shall receive that their joy might be full and gives a sufficient argument to encourage them to petition and emboldens their faith and hope in their prayers because the Father himself has a great kindness for all those who evidence their affection to the Son of his bosom and the delight of his soul So that sooner shall the earth be dissolved and the heavens melt than such promises so powerfully confirmed fail of their accomplishment nor can any man possibly distrust them when he is himself that concludes God to be faithful and immutable and does not think our Saviour Christ to be the greatest Impostor in the World 2. God has heard mens prayers for such things as they have asked even when he had seemed to have determined beforehand what was contrary to the end of their petitions And therefore although he knows our wants before we utter and make them publick by open addresses yet as his command for prayer and promises of audience takes off that Objection So if his determinations have de facto been altered upon mens devout prayers and humble supplications it doth not only prove some Decrees conditional but sufficiently baffles all discouragements to prayer which we may receive from any uncouth and absurd Doctrines of men concerning absolute and irrespective determinations with reference to the beings here on Earth which in their consequence render prayers useless and justifie what they call persecution since in my opinion they should follow or at least submit to Providence if they state it right as well in what the vulgar call misfortunes as they pretended to do in their glories and in their triumphs But though Gods Providence is over all his works and like a wise Governour he superintends the World Yet since secret things belong unto him and only revealed to us and to our children His apparent commands are to be the rules for our practice and not his obscure and hidden Decrees which mystical and pretending persons who confidently assume the monopoly of Dreams would fain have authority to soothsay upon that they may not appear to be ignorant in that which no man can know and yet these would willingly when it might be propitious to their designs resolve all their villany into them But what a strange confusion would be introduced into the World although sincerity did attend opinion if Subjects should proportion their actions of life according to the uncertain conjectures they have of the intententions and designs of their Prince and not guide themselves by his known Laws The Laws would then no longer be his but their own and upon an uncertain though frightful prevision they would rebel either by nature or instinct and wipe their mouths whilst they gravely make Providence their Leader Such would our deportment be towards God should we measure our Duties by Gods Decrees which we could never know and leave his written Laws manifested in his word by which he has declared his will to men And certainly men who make Providence to be their conductor in these affairs though they have been in earnest yet now are but in jest with us since it seems but to serve their turn at such a time in which they say they groan under and cry out on persecution from those who having gained the whip hand exercise it very gently upon them nor would I have it were it in my power too severe upon the backs of any nor any ways intolerable on the Masters of Assemblies And truly I know not but it might be born with a little patience though they should be compell'd to take Country air to preserve their own health when they make others sick in the Town by staying But however it fares with particular contrivers that follow Providence whilst it comports with their own interest yet certainly whatever may be the mystical conclusions of any Enthusiastical men whose fancy may blow them up to the conceipt and for ought some others know to the very sense of an Inspiration Providence which was always dark and full of riddles was never designed as a Rule to mens lives because from this are frequently deduced opposite and quite contrary conclusions Alas men who when blown up like a bladder are no more though when broken they may make a louder crack cannot see through the Clouds of Heaven nor discern the Council of the adorable Trinity nor read the Decrees or Records above that accordingly they may act here on Earth Mortal men in this variable state below are to confine themselves to the Law and to the Testimony and if any speak not according to this word whatever illuminations they may pretend it is because there is no light within them Isai 8.20 And verily there is no cause to doubt if our Maker be a God of truth and designed not to impose upon the World but that I may affirm without any dangerous opposition that his secret will does not contradict his revealed notwithstanding the boldness and impiety of the distinction as it is made use of in Gods dealing with men or as the Symbol and infallible test of one party renouncing all Symbolical Ceremonies Having thus too largely prefaced that which I promised to prove which I strived to check my Pen in but my understanding would dictate to my will and both must unavoidably guide my hand I come now to give some instances where prayer has prevailed with God to grant petitions when yet he had seemed to have determined things contrary to the sence of them And I shall not fetch too large a compass but name a few The first shall be the case of the Israelites when in the absence of Moses on the Mount beyond their expectation they had caused a molten
he has a brow of brass may say to those who understand not or else never look'd into their allowed Breviary or their common and established Mass-Book that we charge them with what they are not guilty of I must instance in a few particulars in which prayers are made to glorified creatures and to some inanimate things too in the publick Offices of the Roman Church since some of the professors of that Religion are so bold and apparently wicked that to serve a turn they will affirm 't is dark in the face of the Sun and light even in the midst of darkness and nothing almost according to their principles of equivocation and mental reservation if they take also the Doctrine of probable opinions in to their assistance can be propounded but they may either affirm or deny as it makes for the advantage of their Church Nay they are bound according to the determination of Bellarmin to say that Vertue is Vice or Vice Vertue if the Pope so concludes either But yet my present charge is so apparently true that all must own it to any that have knowledge of their publick Service whatever they may at any time reply to the ignorant that receive the charge upon the authority of others For in their Commune Apostolorum there is an Hymn consisting both of prayer and praise in which we find these expressions Vos saecli justi judices c. speaking to the Apostles they say O ye just Judges and Lights of the world we beseech you with the desires of our hearts to hear the prayers of your supplicants ye that shut the heavens with a word and unlock them again loose us we pray you from all our sins by your command you to whose authority is subject both the health and misery of all c. In their Office to the Blessed Virgin you have these expressions O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death And let the Virgin Mary together with her off-spring bestow her blessing upon us and the like I shall instance yet in one more although many know I might translate a multitude of the same nature into this Discourse and that shall be in the service relating to one who was the Founder of one of the most pernicious Sects that ever infested the Christian world in comparison to many of whom the Gnosticks were Saints the Goths and Vandals were of a Religious Order the Great Turk becomes a Christian and the wild Fanatick is temperate and mild I mean Ignatius Loyola who founded the first Society of the Jesuits to perplex and confound the Councils of Princes and carry on mischievous designs against us as well by those who have been at the top as those that remain at the bottom of the Ladder In the Service at the Celebration of his Festival there is this Prayer or Collect on the one and thirtieth day of July O God! who for the greater propagation of thy glory hast strengthened thy Church militant properly so indeed under the command of a Jesuit with a new aid by blessed Ignatius grant that we who strive or fight on earth by the imitation and help of him may deserve with him to be crowned in the heavens And if they all deserve the same lot may they together possess the same place for fear they should be as troublesome to us in the other world as they have been in this But I will no longer employ my self in translating their prayers Many instances of their petitions to Saints and Angels have been exposed to view in most Books that have been by Protestants written against them I heartily wish that those who use such prayers understood them better because they would then more easily see how poyson is wrap'd in gilded pills Why should I relate the Attributes which the Church of Rome gives to the Cross of Christ as great as to him who suffered on it and yet have no method to shift their blasphemy but by the same way in which they translate their prayers and praises too from the Cross to him who died upon it And though I love not to pursue a Lion to his den for fear that being weary he may be hungry too and take some opportunity to rend and devour Yet it would be a strange expression from a Protestants mouth that which must needs grate upon the ears of all the devout worshippers of God and such as believe that their prayers are heard only through the merits and intercession of Christ Sancta Crux or a pro nobis Holy Cross pray for us And Ave Crux spes unica Hail Cross our only hope would be words that to us would not only seem ridiculous but abominable and if at all considered to any that hope in the mercy of God through him who suffer'd and dyed upon the Cross But notwithstanding all these are things as common with the Papists as whining and another sort of nonsence are among some Separatists that pretend to set themselves at the greatest distance from them Nay any may see if they have skill and leisure to peruse it in an office of or relating to the Holy Cross Printed at Paris 1664. by publick authority such strange expressions as these are After it has begun with a Prayer to God to free men from their enemies by the Sign of the Cross which if we should make a thousand times upon our selves we should hardly be quit from those that are so devout to it we find afterwards these expressions O Crux venerabilis c. I know not how they may edifie in Latin but I am sure that they sound harsh in English and good or bad thus they run O venerable Cross who hast brought salvation to us miserable with what praises shall I extoll thee because thou hast prepared heavenly life for us And in the close of another Hymn the style tho' a new one is in these words O victory of the Cross and admirable sign make us to triumph in the Celestial Court or the Court of Heaven But this is an ungrateful task to me thus to transcribe the most abominable Popish Prayers and as unpleasant as it can be to Protestants to read it And therefore I shall not fill these Papers with those particular addresses which many of them make to individual Saints as they account them who are departed this life for particular things which they suppose to be in the power of them singly to bestow whilst they appropriate one faculty to one and a second to another whilst they constitute a first to be a Patron to their Horses another to their Sheep a third to their Hoggs and another to keep off some Disease from themselves or at least to cure it And so they make them Grooms or Farriers or Swiniards or Shepherds or Physicians or Mountebanks or what they please For I am weary of raking in such a dunghill in which there is neither Barley-corn nor Jewel
those to whom we acknowledge a civil respect to be just and due this being only an estimation expressed by outward signs and gestures suitable to their beings and degrees of perfection And however men of contrary perswasions especially the Romanists who pretend to proportion their practice suitable to the conceptions of their minds may save themselves in this particular from the imputation of Idolatry by stating curiously the termination of their worship yet they cannot free themselves in this particular from error and presumption from a voluntary humility and will-worship when they pay such acts of Religion to creatures in glory as approach so near to the worship of the Deity that betwixt it and Idolatry there hangs no more than a small cobweb a very nice and thin distinction But we dare not constitute Mediators of our own when God has appointed one for us One even as God is so and consequently must exclude others There is one God sayes the Apostle and one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 Nor will any distinction here serve because our Mediator intercedes in vertue of his Sacrifice and therefore if there are more Mediators for us in Heaven more must have shed their blood on earth We desire indeed the prayers of men living among our selves as S. Paul did when he beseech'd the Brethren to pray for himself but we do not invocate them by acts of Religion when we beg this charitable office from them Not do we intrench upon the great Intercessor in the highest Heaven when we desire these intercessions upon the earth but only that the incense of other mens prayers ascending through the Skies to the supream Palace of the Most High may be presented unto God by the hands of our High Priest resident there not only as a token of his triumphs and victories whilst he was upon the earth or reassuming the right belonging to his God head but on purpose also to make intercession for us If the Saints above could receive notices of our desires and we knew how to signifie our wants to them and present our grievances to their apprehensions as we do to those who converse with us here It is then probable that many men would think it reasonable to make that their desire to them though not by a religious act of prayer which now they conjecture to be vain and fruitless Because their own necessities themselves being not yet compleatly glorified might incline them to pray for men whom they left in this lower world in relation to those things especially that may tend to the fulfilling the number of Gods elect and the hastning that Kingdom which shall be compleated hereafter that all partaking in a glorious translation or resurrection they themselves may have the compleatment of that happiness which they now desire but shall not fully possess till the re-union of their bodies to their souls which death yet keeps in a state of separation Besides this seems reasonable to be allowed that the charity of souls now in Heaven cannot but be advanced and extended far beyond the possibilities of this world and therefore as it is very probable unless we suppose their understandings and memories to dye with them that they may be now so mindful of the necessities of men in general that are left behind them in a miserable world as to exert some acts in common that may be proportionable to prayer for us So could men who are yet resident on the earth know any method of signifying their particular desires to them they might perhaps insert them in their wishes and make such petitions their own For if the rich Glutton in Hell was so sensible of his Brethrens danger as to beg Abraham to send Lazarus to them to assure them of the truth of a future torment and to warn them to flee from the wrath to come much more may we suppose the Saints in Heaven to carry away with them such notices and remembrance of the hazards and miseries of mankind in this world that their enlarged charity may cause them in general to petition for their relief But it does not at all from hence follow that the Saints above can be sensible of all the particular accidents in this world which now happen since their departure Nor does Bellarmine's making a Looking glass of his Maker at all help the contrary assertion the viewing all things in God tanquam in speculo being as unintelligible by the reasons of men as it is invisible to those who have no eyes to see it 'T is true indeed God may reveal to them the necessities of the world and somethings which happen here and there is joy in Heaven for the conversion of a sinner Luke 15.10 But that he does these things to Saints departed we have no evidence but the contrary is asserted in Sacred Writ For Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledges us not Isa 63.16 And therefore nesciunt mortui etiam sancti quid agunt vivi etiam eorum filii sayes S. Austin in curâ pro mortuis The Saints that are dead know not what the living do nay their very Children In vain therefore would it be though it were not mixed with any impiety nor done in the way of prayer and religious invocation to desire any help from those who are not acquainted with our wants nor any where appointed to convey blessings to us Nay if we were assured that they knew all our particular needs as they have been acquainted with the infirmities of mankind it could not be an argument to incline us to implore their aid and assistance especially with such solemnity and devotion as is used in prayer Because God from whom we receive directions for the substantials and essential methods of our devotion has no where commanded such circular prayers that by the mediation of these we should at any time address our selves to him We are directed only by our Blessed Saviour to ask in his name and to this we have the promise of an answer Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name sayes Christ he will give it you John 16.23 And the Author to the Hebrews plainly exhorts that since we have so great an High Priest who is passed into the Heavens Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.6 Here is no need of similitudes from Courts below to teach us methods of address to him by whom Princes reign Or if there were what man that may himself present his petition to an earthly King and discourse his affair freely with him would use the mediation of a Master of Requests especially if the King himself had committed the care of this business to his Son We need not argue our selves to reverence and humility in our addresses to God when we consider the distance and disproportion betwixt him and our selves that he is our Creator and we the
that have been duly educated in the Christian religion and therefore it must be stripped of all the gaudy luxuriances of an Orator not welted with Metaphors nor darkned by any figurative allusions but it ought to be as naked as truth as clear as the light and as plain and open as innocence it self This must not be spoken like the answers of the Oracles in words that may beguile and deceive the simple but it ought to be as plain as the questions of the inquirers were otherwise let the language be what it will 't is but like a prayer in an unknown tongue amusing only but not edifying the Church nor can any person who does not apprehend it rationally pronounce Amen to it because he sets his seal to a blank which men will not do in other cases nay for all that he knows to that which binds him to his own ruin And such prayers S. Paul both redargues and condemns 1 Cor. 14. Secondly our words in prayer must be grave and serious not intermixed with the levities of a Stage as if our words and actions were to be theatrical in prayer and a man were to make a raree shew in religion we must not turn our devotions into a canting burlesque nor cause the weighty conceptions of our souls to be breathed forth in air and fancy as if we were courting a Mistress or a common Hall But our prayers must be wise and grave the business of thought and careful premeditation and our words must be suited to the weight and grandeur of the matter of our petitions What a strange thing is it to hear a man beg by a Romance and to adorn his rags with joques or flowers This better proclaims his madness than his wants What an odd thing is it when a person comes to beg an alms and yet rants aâ— and tears his benefactor who should be stow it This may be expected at Bethlem only but not in a Church Certainly therefore it must startle and amaze us to see and hear bold men thuâ— acting towards God Almighty himselâ— To find persons raving in their prayerâ— as if they would hector the greâ—â— Maker of heaven and earth and scaâ—â— him into a compliance with their dâ—sires by a loud noise bold words 〈◊〉 too confident importunities woulâ— make a rational and wise man woâ—der where they had learned the Trade Or to hear a man ridiculouâ—ly groaning and yelping out his prayers in tones unbecoming solemnity making grimaces and wry faces as he had the gripes in his belly 〈◊〉 would think he walked the fields oâ—ten and had taken notes from the very Cripples Nay to a stranger that had seen and heard both it would admit of some consideration to guess which was the inventor of the faculty and he would conclude both to be artificial but neither to be fitting in the publick service of God Almighty Nay though we pray upon the foundations of promises and Jesus Christ has died for us yet to urge Gods gracious and free promises in such daring and strange language as if it had not been his kindness to make them or our obedience were so compleat that he could not suspend the favours that we petition for destroys that free grace which at other times we magnifie and extol in such a manner as to leave our selves little or no duty to perform As if God must presently be unjust to us if he does not when we please answer our petitions and give us our reward Strange that men in their addresses unto God should no better consider their distance and dependance but assume to themselves such familiarity with their Maker as if they were either his equals or superiors thus robbing him of his glory that they may the better cloath themselves with shame But shall the potsherd fly at the Potters head or dust and ashes endeavour to cloud and obscure heaven shall we do thus who are formed out of the clay whom one word from him to whom we thus rudely address can sentence to an everlasting silence and make the shades below our habitations Nay shall he that can cast our bodies into a grave and our souls into most horrid darkness in the twinkling of an eye and both at last into everlasting burnings who has the disposal of all the blessings and miseries of this life and the eternal rewards and punishments of the next shall he be addressed to in such a manner as if we were his familiar acquaintance Certainly the most high and lofty one the great God of heaven and earth is not so small and inconsiderable a thing as some mens prayers seem to make him Let us hear himself arguing with such rude and careless men Mal. 1.6 A son sayes he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master If I be then a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts unto you O Priests That despise my name and yet say wherein have we despised it The Psalmist gives excelent advice in such a case as this Serve the Lord with fear nay our very rejoycing must be with reverence Psal 2.11 And if the great Kings and Judges of the earth to whom David there speaks must thus perform their duty and service to him who is higher than the highest much more ought those who are of a meaner allay to be admonished not to be malepert with their Maker lest instead of favour they receive vengeance and he gives no other answer to their prayers but a speech of Hailstones and coals of fire Let men therefore use such expressions in their addresses to God as may evidence some dread and awe upon their minds and declare such humility and reverence as become those that draw nigh to God Saint Paul justified himself to the Ephesian Bishops by his deportment among them at all seasons but more especially in that he had served the Lord with all humility of mind which they could no otherways discern but by the outward agreement of his words and actions Act. 20.19 And since our words in prayer are only to express our inward sentiments the thoughts and desires of our souls 't is as requisite that they should be grave and serious as they ought to be modest and humble and as necessary too as that our minds should be qualified and adorned with such vertues when we come to speak or present our selves before the great Majesty of the whole world Nay one is so natural a sign of the other that when gravity and humility are planted in the soul they will sprout forth and spread their branches in the words of mens mouths and deportment of their bodies so that where these last things are wanting we have just cause to suspect nay conclude the profession or affirmation that men have the other to be nothing else but a sham and a pretence Thirdly Our words in prayer must be expressive and full because otherwise they answer not the end for which
they are uttered For since all our expressions in prayer are not only to raise our devotions suitable to the conceptions of our minds but they are also designed to signifie the wishes and desires of our souls 't is reasonable that both should run parallel and our expressions equal our wants and necessities or else our language cannot answer the design of uttering words in prayer I cannot deny but that sometimes the inward conceptions of men in private may be too big for their mouths to express and there a sigh or a groan may prevail with God for what the tongue is not able fully to utter There as the Reverend Dr. Owen more clearly expresses it they may mourn as a Dove or chatter as a Crane and he sayes 't is sufficient in that condition But in publick prayers when one becomes the Orator for the rest petitions ought to be framed so as to express the general wants of those that are present as Christians united into one body being members in particular of that society of which Christ himself is the head that all may be concerned in such common requests and joyn together with one heart and with one soul and with undivided affections say Amen at the close and period But yet Fourthly Our words in prayer must be as few and our petitions as brief as may consist with plainness and perspicuity Not only because what is over and beyond this seems redundant and to no purpose and therefore unreasonable nor only because a tedious protraction and unnecessary length in devotion dulls the spirits and makes our affections unactive and stupid it quenching the fervor and intention of our minds and turns much of our prayer all whilst we remain thus indisposed into meer babble and effusion of words when our minds cannot accompany our expressions or the language of another uttered in our behalf But as we have no example of a tedious and long prayer in the Scriptures so have we prohibitions and arguments against it Solomon exhorting to external signs of reverence and devotion when men go to the house of God Be not rash with thy mouth sayes he 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 Ecclesiast 5.1 2. And if any one should unreasonably restrain this Text only to the subsequent vow yet the argument urged why men should be then sparing of their words will as well conclude in prayer as in vows in both which things we speak to such a God as is in heaven whilst we stand at a distance on the earth Our Saviours advice in his Sermon on the Mount is when thou prayest use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking And he presently gives his own Disciples the form of a full and most expressive prayer Mat. 6 7. Nay if we will be inclined by his own example which any would think that Christians ought even then when by the circumstances he was in an enemy to his religion would conclude him to be devout being fill'd with pain and fear of farther tortures that attended him when he was in an agony so great that his sweat was as it were large glutinous drops of blood when as S. Matthew sayes his soul was sorrowful even unto death and S. Luke tells us that he prayed more earnestly Even then we find his words to be no more than these Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done Luke 22.42 Nor did the earnestness of his strong desire force his thoughts to break out into a flood of expressions but allowing himself some small intervals continuing his devotion he returned to his prayer repeating again the same words Matth. 26.44 But I shall speak more of these Texts hereafter To proceed therefore to shew that brevity is an ornament to our prayers the very nature and usual custom of petitions will bring a sufficient convincing testimony to all those who have not very odd conceptions of the object to whom they make religious addresses These by the reason of men are then judged to be best drawn when they include brevity and fulness of matter and the shorter do we usually frame them by how much the greater the person is to whom they are to be presented And the reason of this may possibly be not only because the serious affairs of great men that are in publick employments will not permit much diversion but for that they are presumed to be wise and discerning able to understand quicker than those who are placed in a more vulgar station A breviat may be sufficient to inform some men when others must be largely instructed from point to point and must have things variously diversified and often reiterated before they will suit with their apprehensions And shall we think the Omniscient God who knows our wants before we petition to be less intelligent or compassionate than men that he stands in need of so many words and variety of expressions to cause him to understand or to incline him to grant what is convenient for us But this will be treated of in a larger manner in the Inferences from the whole discourse And therefore this head shall be concluded with a brief answer to one plea which may be made for a long continued prayer The objection is that our Saviour was engaged all night in prayer Luke 6.12 and some other expressions and examples too we have in the Scriptures that may import and signifie some length in prayer But if we consider them and were either upon extraordinary occasions or so circumstantiated that they differed exceedingly from our present state and cannot be a pattern unto us Or else when Christ or his Apostles continued long in prayer by giving themselves short respits and allowing some intervals between they returned to the same prayers again which might be short enough for all the objection Yet when we have the same Spirit and measures of assistance with such authority and revelations as the had and fall under their circumstances which can never be their extraordinary practice may become a copy for our imitation In the mean time since it is most suitable to the reason of prayer with reference to God a greeable to our natural and unavoidable infirmities and that infinite distance betwixt our Maker and our selves it is fitting that our prayers should be as brief and short as may consist with plainness and perspicuity And therefore Lastly Upon the view of all this it is convenient and for the most part necessary too that both the matter and expressions of our prayers should be fixed and premeditated For if our words in prayer ought to be plain and intelligible if they must be both grave and serious if they ought to be full in the expression of our wants and if they must be as brief and short
from the Lord who does not ask in faith but for want of Gods promise must waver in his hope and he has sufficient reason to suspect his success James 1.6 7. To make Gods promise the foundation of our petitions will hinder our prayers from interfering with his will to which our desires must always be subjected by the eminent example of our Saviour himself even when he prayed for the diversion of his passion Nevertheless not my will but thine be done Luk. 22.42 And this is suitable to a comprehensive petition in that prayer which he gave to his Disciples and in and by them commanded all Christians to use and imitate Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Now this excludes three things from being the subject matter of our prayers 1. Such as are not necessary to us in that rank and station in which we live or if it may be better expressed according to the figure we make in the world For the prayer for other things above us argues nothing less than covetousness and ambition within our selves and then we regard iniquity in our hearts and being thus possessed the Lord will not hear us Such petitions are directed to a wrong end the things we ask being superfluous to us in that condition in which God has placed us wherewith we ought to be content Our prayers must not exceed our station 'till Gods providence moves us to an higher seat 2. Those things must be excluded from our prayers that are inconvenient for God to grant or for us to receive Some things which may be lawful in themselves without reference to circumstances attending may yet be so unsuitable to Gods providence in governing the world that the concession of them may thwart and contradict it Again other things may be unlawful for us to receive Because such may be our tempers and dispositions that when we possess them we may prove troublesome to our selves or very great disturbers of others For some men that may be quiet peaceable and kept in order in a lower degree may prove factious and turbulent when mounted into an higher Sphere 'T is true we have heard of a Dictator drawn from the Plough tail who yet has behaved himself excellently in his office and we have had some good Bishops who never knew what 't was to be a Parish Priest But rare examples will not annul general observation when Divine providence makes men leap into seats of honour God overlooks the whole world and orders the parts with reference to the whole His ways are oftentimes unsearchable and his paths past finding out Yet this we are assured of that as power and authority discovers the disposition of him that has it though his low condition might hide it before so persons that may be modest and humble whilest God keeps them in an inferior order may become proud and insolent when they are placed under a Canopy of honour and have a larger confluence of the things of this world and may turn the grace of God into wantonness And if God should grant such mens petitions as sometimes he does in anger to them for the punishment of others or for many designs hidden from us we usually find this true that Asperius nihil est c. Lastly such things must be excluded from the matter of our prayers that tend to the promotion of our own sins the supporting the wretched tyranny of the Devil or the cruel oppressions of wicked men For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 And we cannot expect that prayers wishing those things that are contrary to this should find any acceptance with God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity or bestow things upon the children of men that may Sstrengthen the hands of wickedness or give incouragement to their sins From all which we may easily conjecture why God many times suspends his answers or denies our requests As he does afflict his people in faithfulness so does he in kindness reject their prayers as well as grant or deny some in wrath For sometimes we are not in a present capacity to receive what we ask and most earnestly desire We frequently come to the house of prayer when yet our sins lay at the door and most abominable hypocrisie lodges in our hearts We have not many times prepared our souls according to the preparation of the Sanctuary but either for want of humility or charity we must leave our gift before the Altar or when we offer it we do not perform it with true devotion and a suitable and earnest intention of our minds We oftentimes pray amiss and so lose the fruit of our requests nay we fail not only in the designs of our prayers but even in the manner of performance We are not like the importunate Widow which Parable was delivered to this end to encourage men always to pray and not to faint Luk. 18.1 Or else we do not as Cornelius did joyn alms with our prayers for these are an admirable preparative to devotion or an excellent conclusion to close our petitions with they help to lift up our desires to heaven being such a sacrifice with which God is well pleased Heb. 13.16 Or else we come before the Maker of the world with some great sin wasting our consciences which we have not confess'd and repented of and the fear of this may justly contract our hearts and imprison our spirits and whilst this hovers over our heads we cannot see to the God that made us nor to him who is the Redeemer of our souls and therefore wanting faith our petitions can neither be accepted or answered Our sin that we have not repented of hangs over us as a thick cloud hindring our prayers from ascending to heaven and intercepts the favours and mercies of God causing them to recoil back to himself Nay we too frequently approach his presence with hearts ungrateful for the mercies we have received and though we have obtained what Divine Providence both in spirituals and temporals flowing from infinite wisdom and power has hitherto thought fitting to bestow we instead of being thankful for our receipts murmur and repine because we have no more Like persons here below we are perpetually grumbling at the Governments of this World because we have not what we wish for though perhaps we have more than we deserve And further as this is a great argument that we take not the true measures of our selves so we are extremely willing that Gods thoughts should be like our own rather than our wishes should be regulated by his wisdom And therefore he frequently denies our requests in prayer because being guided by our narrow and short prospect of things we sometimes ask that which if granted would prove our ruin For as St. Paul says we know not what to pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 We have not the just view of our selves and cannot with certainty see what is future and
God or without such a resolution to relinquish their sins as shall be brought to perfect effect in the process of their lives when they do not smite on their breasts with the Publican but either conceal their sins as David did sometime his adultery and murder or justifie them with the Pharisees and call evil good For he that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy Pro. 28.13 To pray to God with a full resolution to cherish those sins which he so much hates is to affront him to his very face to spread our defiled garments before him as if they were pure and clean or his eyes could now behold iniquity This is like an accursed Traitor when he comes to ask preferment of a King when he should beg pardon with an halter about his neck To be like Judas who betrayed our Saviour with a kiss and boldly to conclude that the innocence of our faces must incline God to a compliance with our sins This is abominable in the sight of honest men much more must it be odious in the sight of God unless as some men strangly presume it may be conjectured that he will overlook our crimes as he is pleased to pass by our infirmities Of this impenitent state may we understand that of David Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in mine heart the Lord will not hear me and the prayers of such men are an abomination Nay God himself who can neither ly nor equivocate says of such men that they offer the multitude of their sacrifices to no purpose i. e. if they present them with an expectation of such an acceptance as that the supream Being should be appeased by them And in this sence is it that he expostulates with the Jews and forbids them to bring any more vain oblations till they had washed and made themselves clean and put away the evil of their doings from before his eyes till they had ceased to do evil and learned to do well Otherwise says he incense is an abomination the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of assemblies I cannot away with It is iniquity even the solemn meeting When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Isaiah 1. 3. Wicked men must not expect Gods favourable answer when they pray for such things the concession of which may give too great and direct occasion for others to conclude that God gives countenance to sin whether it be lodged in the understanding or the will or in both As for example That such men may be enabled to work miracles in confirmation of their errors or to support their sinful and Diabolical designs And therefore we find that when Simon Magus would have purchased the power of conferring the Holy Ghost upon his own Disciples because this would have confirmed his devilish doctrines amongst the people and that sacred gift and authority was too pure for his impious and defiled hands S. Peter made a reply to him as sharp and severe as it was quick and sudden Thy money perish with thee thou hast neither lot nor part in this matter for thine heart is not right in the sight of God Acts 8.20 21. And this was the reason also of the saying of him that was born blind John 9.31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners For we find the Jews ver 24. exhorting the man to give God the glory of his cure but none to our Saviour by whose authority he was made whole who had not sight restored but given to him For we know say they meaning Christ that this man is a sinner and therefore could have no authority to work such a Miracle To which the enlightened person replies thus to confute their calumny and at the same time to prove the authority of the Miracle That he hath opened mine eyes is apparent Now we know that God heareth not sinners As if he should have said God would not attend the petition of any that were a sinner and impostor as you suppose him to be who has opened mine eyes and given sight to me to cause so great a Miracle to be done by him because such a thing would harden him in his vice and confirm his imposture And therefore since God hears none in such a case as this but one that is a true worshipper of him and does his will it follows that you are mistaken in your thoughts of him For if this man were not of God he could have done nothing of this nature nor gained such a power from above as to have been able to open mine eyes who was born blind But now though God hears not the prayers of wicked men when they petition him in the forementioned circumstances or with a design to obtain the power of working Miracles yet the case will be quite altered when with a deep sense of their sins and great humility of soul they make their approaches with confession in their mouths and a real resolution to forsake those sins that have hitherto separated betwixt their Maker and themselves God is willing then to hearken to them to adopt them into his family to make them the objects of his care and more especial providence and to cause joy in Heaven for the sinner that repenteth He calls to them then as he did to the Jews Come now and let us reason together Although your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa 1.18 God cherisheth the first beginnings of amendment and he will neither break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax But he encourageth the first motions to a return accepts our sincerity and quickens and crowns our faithful endeavours And when wicked men in such circumstances of hopeful beginnings address themselves to a gracious God they will lose by degrees their former denomination and quickly have an Advocate with the Father who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world And having an interest in such a High Priest who is the Bishop of the souls of men they may come boldly to the Throne of Grace that they may obtain mercy and find grace to help them in time of need Heb. 4.16 When any men come to God with that humility of mind in which the Centurion clothed and addressed himself to our Saviour Matth. 8.8 Lord I am unworthy that thou shouldst come under my roof they may then whatever they have been before piously expect that according to the reality of their faith and the sincerity of their minds it shall be done unto them The Thief upon the Cross had no sooner said Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom but Christ knowing the intention of his mind which he now discovered not only by his prayer but also by the rebuke of his associate presently replyed To day thou shalt
Secrets of Princes and administer occasion to disturb the Order and Government of the World Which they indeed ought to introduce who undertake to be so particular and nice in confessing the sins of other men or praying for the things individuals stand in need of But to proceed By our absolutions the true penitent is only incouraged and that authority which our Saviour left with his last Commission to the Ministers of his Gospel is kept up and maintained in pursuance of what Christ said to his Apostles after his Resurrection when the state of his humiliation ceased and he was ready to ascend with triumph to his Father Joh. 20.23 Whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained Furthermore we are directed by the Order of our Church to say our prayers day by day that so we may in the sence of the Apostle pray without ceasing and continue instant in prayer and by vertue of our adoption cry Abba Father And this because the prescription of our blessed Lord himself gives us both a pattern and direction for when he teaches us to pray for bread which is the staff and support of our lives day by day As to the object of our prayers we make our Supplications to God alone through the Merits and mediation of Jesus Christ and admit no creature to partake in the honour due to either The matter of our publick prayers is such as includes our general wants we always beg the pardon of sin to be delivered from temptations and evils we petition also for Grace to assist us it being the influence of the Spirit of God And in particular we ask those Theological virtues of Faith Hope and Charity without which we cannot be saved We pray more especially as the Ancients did even when they were persecuted for Kings and all that are in authority that under them we may lead godly and quiet lives Nay we petition for men of all sorts and in all circumstances that none may be shut out from the benefit of our prayers and we beg all things that may be needful for our bodies and our souls We pray for happy seasons of the year for prevention of and deliverance from all Plagues that may hurt the body and all evils that may assault the soul We pray against all the bad accidents and misfortunes of our lives and that we may escape violence and sudden death Because notwithstanding the notions some have of Predestination death may be too surprizing to the best and if not prevented by the Providence of God may advance towards and seize us too before we are prepared to receive it and therefore we further petition Heaven that we may be fitted for our last encounter and that we may submit with Christian comfort and courage to and have a safe deliverance at the day of Judgment We pray not indeed for the Souls of men after their departure out of this lower world Because we believe according to the Scriptures that as the tree falls so it lies and as death finds us so will Judgment too Nor do we know and how can we unless it were revealed of any middle place where the souls of men may suffer to their improvement and be purged by any material fire If we could suppose it to operate upon an immaterial being Yet we pray as far for men departed this life as the Primitive Christians ever did and the form of our blessed Lord teaches us in that Petition Thy Kingdom come viz. That in order to the coming of the Kingdom of Glory God would bring the just that are departed this life to an happy and a blessed Resurrection that so Christs Church which is Militant on Earth may finally become Triumphant in the Heavens And we always give thanks for the examples and triumphs of those who have died in the true faith of Christ that we may rejoice with them whose joy is now full according to their capacity and shall at the great day be much more enlarged Our Liturgy is so excellently framed that as there is no sort of men but what we have some petitions for So there is no condition we can be cast into but the whole community who join in our Service share with us in sympathy and affection because they must remember us in our common Church prayers And of this the Litany is so full and expressive that particular Collects seem to be redundant when this is used yet we have even these too very suitable to the state of any that would desire that their grievances may be expressed to Almighty God by him who offers up the prayers of the Congregation As far as modesty and cleanness of language is able to present them though not in those terms in which they were formerly pitch'd up with a fork to load a Pulpit and the Ministers hearty wishes are assisted by the devout affections and consent of the people In a word our Church directs and her true obedient Sons practise what the Apostle advises the Philippians to do Chap. 4. ver 6. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God And as they whom the Apostles first converted to the Christian faith we continue stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer Our Creeds in which we make the publick profession of our faith contain all Articles but yet no more than the purest Christian Churches of the world have in all Ages of their Religion declared They are neither stuffed with the additions of the Council of Trent nor have we abated by the omissions of ancient Hereticks or any that bear a newer date nor do we receive any point of faith but what is plainly evident in the Scriptures And for these we own neither spurious nor generally doubted Books Our fellowship or society is upheld as all others must be by those whose business it is to govern and those whose duty it is to obey And in the quality of our Rulers we have the advantage of some other Churches that are yet Protestant in that we are governed by Bishops for whose order in the Christian Church notwithstanding any personal failures to which all that is called man is subject or the malicious imputations of any wicked and unreasonable men we have the same evidence if this word too is not in disgrace and consent among the Antients for fifteen hundred years as we have for the Baptism of Infants for the abolishing of the day of the Jewish Sabbath and instead of it for the establishment of the observation of the Lords Day And as far as I can yet learn all the three seem to stand upon the same foundation and if they fall they must be ruined together Our Sacraments are no more than what our blessed Saviour instituted and commanded also to be used in his Church that we might have some visible signs which by vertue of his blessing might
We may know their opinion and practice too in this point from Bellarmin who was the great Champion for the Church of Rome in that at the close of every Tome of his Controversies he joyns the Virgin Mary with God in the thanks he renders for help in the composure Praise be given to God and the blessed Virgin Nay Gregory de Valentia exceeds him in the Transport For he possibly as he thought from good manners puts the Virgin before her Son in the close of some of his Books and sayes Laus Deo beatae Virgini Mariae Domino Jesu Christo Praise be to God and to the blessed Virgin Mary and to the Lord Jesus Christ Which whether his meaning were to constitute a new Trinity by discarding the old omitting the Holy Ghost and changing that Sacred Person for the Mother of our Lord I must leave to the judgement of others The Conquest in the Battel at Lepanto was plainly ascribed not to God but to the conduct of the Virgin Mary which appears by their Festival in memory of it called Festum Sanctae Mariae à victoriâ celebrated at the beginning of October 'T is a common thing for the Romanists in their prayers to Angels or departed Saints not only to beseech them to intercedein their behalf when intercession for men in Heaven is plainly founded on their Redemption upon Earth and therefore Christ who is the Mediator of Redemption is alone capacitated to be the Mediator of Intercession But they rely also on those whom they invoke in such cases for aid and protection nay for grace here and glory hereafter and in consequence of this all their curiously invented distinctions will never bring them off from the horrid guilt of giving away Gods Glory to another since by their petitions they imply a dependance on creatures whom they invoke for such things as are in Gods power alone to give what ever Messengers some of them may be to convey the blessings of Heaven to us And this must be odious in the sight of God as it is abominable to all good men who understand what Religion means But let us allow the evasions of the Romanists in these points to be as cunning and plausible and witty as they please Yet is not strange that the Governours of a Church should compose prayers in such language and stile that the first and natural signification of the words must lead the simple into Error and Idolatry Unless you suppose them to be all Schoolmen that understand how to split an hair and know how to pick straws well that have the artificial knack of nicety and distinction or heads so naturally made for abstraction that they ken a dictinction as soon as 't is invented and uttered by another and yet they can have nothing but these arts and tricks to save them from the edge of their own prayers and such an edge as is fatal too This is like making any point hard that was before easie that a man may have the honour of unridling the difficulty of his own making and render the same easie again and so end where he first began This is only turning round over a rope to bring ones head into its right place And to what purpose these things are let the first inventors answer themselves It cannot otherwise appear to me but that these things grow from Atheism and irreligion and are designed only to bring forth fruits convenient for this world but no way procuring glory in the next For if there is a God whom men ought to worship with their minds and souls as well as with their bodies in which all present at it ought to be and are concerned and in which they should unanimously join what a monstrous thing is it to have the expressions in this Service so worded that they are rightly to be understood only by the Learned Whilst the people may by the termination of their Worship in that to which they immediately address not understanding the force of a distinction or if they did its acute operation to save themselves from the danger they are in by their Publick Service be Idolaters in practice though they might hate the name and the thing too if once they had it explained to them however their Priests in the mean time may shift for themselves and 't is beyond my knowledge to know how they can God deliver us from such devotion of which so gross and thick ignorance is the Mother which yet how far it may excuse the vulgar to whom in the Roman Church 't is invincible I shall leave to the great God to judge together with all those who are resolved that their hazards shall be continued to themselves by refusing to follow their own understandings but willingly permit their Priests to lead them in the dark it being easier it seems and for ought they know much more pleasant to be always blind than to see Such are like the Samaritans our Saviour rebukes Joh. 4.22 Who are resolved to worship in the mountain although they know not what they worship But let us who are members of the best Church in the Christian world continue to offer to the great God such prayers as we understand that both the affections and intentions of our minds may bear a due proportion to our expressions Let us whatever others do devoutly pray to the Supreme God in and through the Merits of our Lord Jesus Christ since we are encouraged thus to come to the Throne of Grace that we may find help in time of need I have proved in a former part of this Discourse that God only is to be the Object of our prayers and that such service as we account Divine is not to be given to another I have also shewed that our words in prayer must be plain and intelligible as well as they ought to be grave and serious that the intentions of our minds may accompany and guard the expressions of our tongues But such rules men apparently transgress who pray in a language which they do not understand or to Angels or departed Saints or to a piece of Bread when they adore the Host and worship a Wafer Such things as these were never heard of in the first and purest Ages of Christianity and God grant that they may never again be introduced among our selves in these last Ages of the World that so Christ may find a true faith and devotion too here upon the Earth when he comes riding triumphantly in the Clouds to pass Sentence upon the whole world Let us resist the Pope and his Janisaries with the same argument by which our Saviour baffled the Devil Get thee behind me Sathan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 And this Example and Text together methinks should abash all pretending and deter all real Christians from making any Religious Addresses to immortal Angels or Saints departed and much more to any creatures
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