And Lastly a constant demonstration of this affection throughout the whole course of our lives especially in our confessions prayers and thanksgivings to God First Then do we justly contemplate the works of God when we make diligent search into them and fix our minds upon the excellency of their nature and orderly disposal for use and ornament When we consider both the Heavens and the Earth and more particularly reflect upon our selves as David did and see how fearfully and wonderfully we are made that from hence we may infer the wisdom goodness and power of God 2. Then do we perform the next thing preparative to prayer and adoration when upon the intellectual view of any of Gods works of Creation or Providence we own and acknowledge his glorious Attributes thus rendred apparent to us because there are sufficient footsteps of these in the works of his hands Thus the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psal 19.1 2. And the invisible things of him sayes St. Paul are clearly seen from the Creation of the World being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 3. We ascend another step of moral service when by due consideration we act with understanding and judgment upon the works of God inferring from thence his glorious Attributes and upon the contemplation and view we are properly and truly affected with them as things that mark out a most excellent Being This affection will appear in our admiration love and awful regard to him in our humility of mind and dependance on him in our rejoycing and confiding in him and the like acts of rational creatures towards their great and Soveraign Creator And therefore Lastly we must give all possible testimony of these affections throughout the whole course of our lives by adoring him whom we have cause to fear by invoking him on whom we depend by giving thanks to him who is our great Benefactor by continual calling on his power for aid and praying his goodness to relieve us in our necessities and by a constant obedience to him who is our King and most Supreme Governour Now though none almost who is endowed with any reason and understanding can refuse from the prospect of this to conclude prayer to be both necessary and advantageous Yet the Disputers of this World especially when they like not the man that writes it will not be so easily satisfied For 1. Some have conjectured things to come to pass by chance and fortune denying Gods Government of the World by Providence 2. Others have introduced a Stoical fatality concluding all things to be necessary banishing what we call contingency Now whether this is said to come to pass by the concatenation of second Causes by the fatality of Stars or by reason of absolute and irrespective Decrees This Principle like the former takes away the great reason of prayer as it regards the procuring benefits to our selves and renders our petitions useless and in vain if God be inexorable and has so tied himself up by his own Decrees that he will not be intreated by the most profound and sincere devotions nor the most affectionate humble and hearty prayers of men whom he has yet commanded to petition him Oh! What a strange being do some men make him This supposes him to be so unlike to the great Maker and Governor of the Universe that a man of but a tolerable nature and ingenuity would be ashamed of such a description of himself Now though it might be a sufficient answer to Objections raised from such absurd and ridiculous principles to expose the propositions upon which such inferences are built Yet because it would too much swell this Discourse I shall rather do it with reference unto prayer by this more short and ready Method 1. By shewing that notwithstanding all his dark and most secret Decrees God has promised to hear and grant mens lawful petitions 2. That he has done so even when he had seemed to determine things opposite to what they asked And 3. by giving some reasons for this Duty of prayer which will determine the point how great soever the Objections against it may appear to be First God has promised to hear and grant mens lawful petitions Offer to God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high And call upon me says God in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.14 15. When Solomon had finished that glorious Temple devoutly dedicated to the honour of God the great Jehovah signified to him the acceptance both of his prayer and dedication together with the wise choice of that place for an house of Sacrifice And then he makes this solemn promise If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send a pestilence among my people If my people upon whom my name is called shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land And mine eyes shall be open and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place 2 Chron. 7th Chap. 13 14 15. And if any one should unreasonably think that such promises only concerned the Jews when the thing which it is quoted to prove is equally as to the main substance a duty and an incouragement to the Christians let him quit the Old Testament in point of Controversie and we will presently make use only of the New But then some Jesuited Protestants might many times lose their Cause if they had not Prophecies to retire to in the dark and would have nothing but the Book of the Revelation to guide them Yet however let us peruse the New Testament and the promises in this case will appear more large and comprehensive where we have the blood of Sprinkling speaking better things than the blood of Abel that pleads strongly for the acceptance of Christians lawful petitions where we have the Mediator of a better Covenant who continually appears in the presence of God presenting both his sufferings and his triumphs and in virtue of his Sacrifice upon the Cross now liveth to make intercession for us and therefore our prayers through his hands ascend as incense when we offer our Spiritual Sacrifices by him our Intercessor does sufficiently consecrate them in whose name we are exhorted to come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need Heb. 4.16 Nay our blessed Saviour himself incourages all his Disciple to make their petitions to Almighty God Ask says he and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him
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
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
reference to the intentions of our minds 2. In relation to the gesture of our bodies 3. To shew something which may regard our words and expressions First The rnanner of our addresses with reference to the intention of our minds ought to be such as may include great activity in our rational faculties and exert our affections in some proportion to the value of our petitions and the most glorious object whom we invoke Particularly so that the more considerable and worthy our prayers are the more exalted and earnest must our desires be The external representations of any mans devotion without the inward affection and fervency of his mind are acts of hypocrisie not religion 'T is like the common dissimulations amongst our selves when we fawn upon a man till we obtain an opportunity to devour him My Son sayes Wisdom give me thine heart Prov. 23.26 And the first and great commandment of the Law according to our Saviours interpretation is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy might and with all thy soul Matth. 22.37 Hence are those declared blessed by the Psalmist that seek God with their whole heart Psal 119.2 And by this rule was King David himself wont to manage his addresses With my whole heart have I sought thee sayes he to God Psal 119. 10. And I intreated thy favour with my whole heart vers 58. And he urges it as an argument why God should hear him because he cryed with his whole heart vers 145. His mind was intent on and accompanied his petitions and his seriousness in this snatch'd away his Soul wholly to it self and the God to whom he made his addresses so must we in our prayers to the supream Being diligently attend to what we desire and being first satisfied concerning the matter and expressions of our prayers our most earnest wishes must accompany the words in which we present our petitions unto God Now this cannot possibly be done unless 1. we understand the phrases and words in which we utter the petitions of our minds For how can we intend our souls and raise our affections suitable to the weight and urgency of our prayers when we do not understand what is offered by our selves or any other in our behalf There must in prayer be an elevation of our minds accompanying our petitions and our souls must in a manner pass into our devotions that they may be totally imployed in this duty for the time we are about it without any diverting reflections But this can never be when we have not previous apprehensions of the matter of our prayers and a sufficient perception of the sence of our petitions nay and most commonly the very expressions then used For the soul being otherwise imployed in the invention of method and sense and straining also for words to express it or in passing judgment upon the inventions of another who presumes to utter the wants of a congregation in a new dress and every time with variation of phrases All know that the soul of man can exert but one act at the same instant nor consider any more than one thing at once how then can it judge and apprehend at the same time raise its affections proportionable to the petition and keep it self fixed upon God in any tolerable measure It cannot therefore with equal paces accompany a prayer which it does not understand before it comes to make use of it And truly were this well and seriously considered it would render prayers useless and insufficient that are either made in an unknown tongue or in English phrases that are unpremeditated unintelligible or unknown before hand to those who are to joyn in the oblation so as to bind up their assent to the petitions and to satisfie themselves that they pray with understanding As to any objection that may be made from mens joyning in prayers which they never heard before as in the case when a stranger comes to preach it may easily be answered that no man can assent to the whole with understanding unless he be a person of extraordinary apprehensions or he that prayes makes more than common pauses at the end of every period of a petition that all may have time to apprehend and judge and put up an earnest wish with it Otherwise some periods subsequent must needs pass before the antecedent has been considered unless it may be allowed to have such an implicit faith in a man that whatever he sayes at such a time is Gospel and whither this will carry us may be easily known since it is the direct road to Rome For if we may implicitly believe particular men without examination in cases that are in our own power much more will they say may we believe the Church But Prayer indeed consists not in a voluble effusion of words and language but this must be attended with a suitable servour which cannot be without a dueintention of mind and this requires a previous acquaintance with what is uttered that the understanding may command and regulate the affections When the understanding is thus justly informed beforehand we may be more zealous and earnest in raising our affections to a decent height and so six our intentions upon the object of our prayers and the weightiness of the things we petition for that our souls will suffer some kind of transport and be swallowed up wholly in them Have you not seen a person who delights in musick so ravished with the strokes made upon his Viol and transported with those pleasant Aires that the intention of his mind and all his faculties have been so fully imployed that he has disregarded all things else as if his soul had suffered a transmigration and had wholly pass'd into the instrument he played on Thus should it be as far as humane frailty will permit with men devoutly earnest in prayer we should come to it with such preparation and seriousness of mind that knowing before what we design to petition Heaven for we should be intent like men begging for their lives and every prayer were the last we should make that so God seeing our fervour and devotion may be inclined to hear and to have mercy For when at any time our minds wander in our prayers and do not accompany the words uttered so much of the prayers are lost to us as are passed over whilst we permitted the diversion and the only remedy by which we may interest our selves in what is gone is in my opinion to recollect the petitions as well as we can which we may do where the usual forms of the Church are used and utter an hearty Amen to them 2. We must in the intending our minds in our solemn devotions fix our souls on the object of our prayers and as much as we can throughout the whole carry along whilst we utter our wants some notions of that glorious Being to whom we make our religious addresses especially at the first entrance upon them that we
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
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
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
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
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
treating of the Idolatry of the Gentiles acacquaints the World that by the mistake of the fundamental words in Religion it was of old turned into Mythology and Gentilism The same may we also say of those persons whose pretensions are the highest in understanding the deepest mysteries of Christianity That they cover the brightest Sun in a Cloud and render the plainest things obscure and find Mysteries in words that in themselves are most obvious to the minds of men easily representing their own meanings so that to discover the foundation of Religion needs no more than the removal of that rubbish which by mystical men is cast upon it Yet by such means some turn the Christian Religion into Gibberish and cause it to speak in an unknown tongue either by their own misapprehensions or an industrious veiling of those words that were at first designed to express it thus converting a plain Religion into more Mysteries than were to be found at Ephesus or Athens Such words as these are Prayer Conscience Faith Spirit Gifts Experience Predestination and the like But the matters of our Religion ought not to be obscure because Gods Service is a rational worship Rom. 12.1 And therefore we find this in Tully Haec si Deorum signa sunt cur essent obscurd He speaking of Signs and Wonders and Revelations from the Gods If these sayes he are notices from the Gods why should they be so obscure and dark And in his second Book of Divination he proves that things which are obscure want both Grace and Majesty Indeed it renders any the most holy System of Religion extreamly subject to the censures of men and liable to be accused for cheat and imposture when it seems to have two faces may easily carry a double name and is vâ—iled under equivocal or obscure Doctrines and the phrases by which it is exhibited to the world are misted and dusky if they are not quite dark as if the preservers of the Mysteries of Religion like the Keepers of the Liberties of the Commonwealth of England intended to keep them all unto themselves Thus Theodoret Hist lib. 2. reports of Leontius stained with the Arrian Blasphemy That he endeavoured with subtilty to hide his opinion under a dubious and equivocal language altering the sense of Gloria Patri by changing and interposing some little Prepositions and Conjunctions and by rehearsing a part softly to himself or what is more probable totally omitting it and another part with an audible voice that so he might although it was discovered avoid accusation among the Orthodox And though he lost his faith yet it seems he was not willing to lose the Bishoprick of Antioch I wish our Sectaries were free from such left-handed designs though I believe there is no danger of their advancing to Bishopricks unless we should conclude those to be distracted whom yet we suppose to be very wise And then their simplicity might a little stand in the room of the Ideot and either excuse them for mangling and spoiling Religious worship by making Mysteries where they cannot find them or for inventing folly in which there is no Mystery at all or at least excuse them if they refused to say Amen to all the Mysteries produced by others We are all I confess of the family of God But yet God does not pray with us though he is the Master of this great family and it would be absurd for him to pray unto himself But it may be that there is a Mystery in this too However strange words and uncouth phrases strike terror and amazement into the minds of Proselytes that they may by this method be softned and prepared the more easily to receive the impressions of those principles which otherwise upon retirement and consideration their free reason would never embrace And truly this is an honest plea because 't is open and without reserve Though I am afraid there is a little knavery in it because I find Eusebius informing us Hist lib. 4. that some of the Disciples of Marcus the Magician uttered many Hebrew names that they might affect those that were newly entred into their study and discipline with the greater admiration and amazement In a word our most exalted and obstinate Separatists are much of the temper and design too of those whom S. Austin blames in the beginning of his first Book of the Trinity who endeavoured to transcend all that was created but being kept down with the burden of mortality when they would seem to know what they were ignorant of and could not understand what they would by their bold and resolute affirmations of their own opinions they bar'd themselves from the means of knowledge chusing rather not to correct their own perverse opinion than to change that which they had assumed and were resolved to defend What should I trouble any Reader with what they prop and support what our Schismaticks call their Churches For since they cannot derive their own succession they boldly deny any to be necessary And yet Tertullian de Praescript Haeret. cap. 32. sent this challenge to the Hereticks then Edant ergo origines Ecclesiarum suarum c. Let them put forth the origine of their Churches let them turn over the Catalogues of their Bishops that so descending by successions from the beginning they may find that their first Bishop has had one of the Apostles or Apostolical men who hath conversed with and accompanied the Apostles his Author and Antecessor For by these means and in this method do the Apostolick Churches deduce and declare their Original I might to enlarge my Discourse also instance in many of the received Doctrines of the Separatists that are as currant as they are common among them which yet under the fair pretence of endearing words and Scripture proofs wound the Deity in his glorious Attributes disturb that blessed harmony and peace and the Politick Government of mankind which the profession and practice of the Christian Religion does very much help and conduce to and therefore is it by the most Wise God recommended and established in the World But I shall forbear these things at present and conclude all with the testimony that S. Cyprian bears to borrow an expression from the spawn of these men against all prayers that are rude and indigested more full of words than of sense and more abounding with long Periods than matter that may promote hearty devotion For the Father in the beginning of his Tract of the Lords Prayer does abundantly condemn such things as these by giving a quite contrary account of the practice of the Christians in this particular Because after he has given this advertisement That God is a God at hand as well as a God afar off and that where-ever a man hides himself he certainly discerns him because he fills Heaven and Earth and sees both the good and the bad This holy Father acquaints men that when the Christians were congregated to celebrate the Divine Offices with the Priest of
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