begirt with his permissive Commission to goe out and destroy to root out I and branch out and to pull downe our most holy desires because of our former neglect of them wee acknowledge it just in him to let our after-sins be an additionall punishment to those which went before so that what ever is here said is but an unreflecting bewaylement of our owne sad condition and I hope as it is lawfull for us to be wretched it is so too to bemoan our selves and not to let God alone though we interpose not amongst men till he restore these blessings For the lawfullnesse nay the Energy of set Formes of Prayer because I confesse my selfe too low of wing and not piniond for such a slight capeable of so much majesty of naturall historicall and scripturall reason with which it is richly furnishd by those solid substantiall pens some of whose deliberations I have formerly perused and some I have now by me and thanke God for all that I may give you the more light and not eclipse them I shall impart to you the Streame and the Fountaine their reasons and the Authours together with some slender supernumerary account of my owne observation and greivance though I well know this will only call backe your intent eye from the magnificent buildings and stately inward ornaments to beg at least one broken glance upon the homely disfigured out houses Where first Mr. Mead will tell you In his Diatribae pag. 1. that our Saviours Prayer is prescribed not only as a Patterue though so also Pray thus Math. 6.9 but in the very Forme of these words when you pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say say these very words Luke 11. v. 2. Our Father where t is marke-worthy that the delivery of this Prayer in St. Mathew as part of Christs Sermon upon the Mount was not upon the same occasion nor at the same time as that in St. Luke which was upon a speciall motion of his Disciples at a time when himselfe had done praying that of St. Mathew in the 2. that of St. Luke in the 3. yeere after his Baptisme whence it followes that his Disciples tooke that in St. Mathew for a Patterne only and not for a Forme had they taken it for a Forme also they were already provided and then neede not still aske how to prays that they may take it for a Forme also t is commanded to be performed in haec verba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was a precedent and warrant to his Church to give the like Formes Next he tells us the practise of the Old Testament is a good rule to follow in the New and instances in those 2 set Formes appointed by God himselfe Numb 6.23 On this wise Deut. 26.13 Then thou shalt say I have brought Next that the Booke of Psalmes was the Jewish Liturgy or the cheife part of their vocall worship in the Temple evidenc't by the Titles of the Psalms which commend them to the severall Quires in the same to Asaph to the Sons of Korah to Jeduthun and almost 40 of them to the Magister Symphonia in generall the like wee are to conceive of those which have no titles as of the 105. and the 96 Ps which wee finde in 1 Chron. 16.7 to be delivered by David into the hands of Asaph and his brethren for Formes to thanke the Lord wee our selves also and all the Reformed Churches sing the Psalmes not only as set Formes but set in Meeter i. e. after a humane composure are not the Psalmes set Formes of confession Of Prayer Of praysing God If they say these are rehearsed only as Chapters for Instruction though my owne generall observation amongst military men and others disinclined to our Liturgy will reply them to be their devotionall and not only their hearkning part else certainly they would give as favourable and submisse an Audience to a Samuel and a Matthew as they doe to a Hopkins and a Sternhold they would not else be so familiarly covered to a Prophet and an Evangelist when they appeare themselves and bare presently to the advice of a David when he only comes abroad by proxi and the King is lessened in the Ambassadour unlesse perhaps the Reverence is the more because however he is now disguised he was once a King Though I never forbeare to communicate in this Matter-Liturgy yet I alwayes looke upon them cum venia as an under-forme in the Schoole of Liturgy whose skill I never yet heard any dare to equall with those grand Archi-Compilors whom a very stake and faggot could not confute yet no doubt wee may and ought sing the Psalmes as they in the Old Testament did the Churches of Israel used the Psalmes for Formes of praysing and invocating God what else meane those formes cantemus Domino psallite Domino c But there are two more direct and expresse Testimonies 1 Chron. 25.1 It is expressely said of the Sons of Asaph and Jeduthun that their Office was to Prophesie with a Harpe to give thankes and to praise the Lord. 2 Chron. 30.21 Wee reade that the Levites and the Preists Praised the Lord day by day singing with lowd Instruments unto the Lord and lastly to leave no place for further doubt wee reade Ezra 3.10.11 that the Levits the Sons of Asaph were sent with Cymbals to prayse the Lord after the Ordinance of David King of Israel and that they sung together by course in praysing and giving thankes Thus it was then and thus it should be now for the Priest is called the Month of the people whose Mouth he is not if they are unacquainted with what he sayes It should be so for uniformity for the Church being a mysticall body cannot better testifie her unity before God then in her uniformity in calling upon him Thus farre he to whom I also refer thee in the same Tractate for an ample satisfaction to all voluntary extemporaneous prayer in publique To these I will adde some few reasons yet so that there shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ilyad of proof bosomed within the slender compasse of a Nut-shell which I have borrowed from Dr. Hammond In his practicall Catechisme and which doe lesse coincidere with the former whose holy life who ever knowes will easily beleeve he is such a man who does not stare à partibus is of no side but Truths and Christianity and that his reading had taught him the practize and the practize wrote his booke Where first let the practize of our dying Saviour give life to the legality of a prescription when he repeats the ancient words of his Father David My God my God why hast thou forsaken me to quicken us to repeat His own words who is now Our Father in Heaven Secondly The no-objection against a prescribed Forme for as it is lawfull to use them after the uncontroled example of all Churches throughout all times so it is lawfull to prescribe them at some times and for
his Vicisti Galilaee leaves out himselfe and sets up a God Lucian 1 Tom Timon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which old repentant Eli upon Gods sentence against him hath indenizon'd into a Scripture-expression Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good and if we may apply another orthodox sense to the same words the practise both of the ancient Fathers and of the Moderne most learned devout Writers It is our Saviours almost literally It is I be not afraid From what I have hitherto said Mat. 14.27 as the severest eye cannot discerne a quarrell against my King to whom there is not only an obligation laid upon my words but my very thoughts are also tyed up Eccles. 10 20. so I hope no moderate indifferent man will arraign any piece of my language against his great Court I know I am bound there also for Thou shalt not revile the Gods i.e. as some read the Judges Exod. 22 28. I would faine perswade my selfe that at least that one ingredient of an intire Christian spreads it selfe throughout my spirituall composition to love the whole world I meane the persons for I was never baptized into that hatred and would bee loath which in another kinde of contraries is the divells tallest stratagem to stir up and inflame a contentfull pride out of humility it selfe to make my love of one though of him who is the very breath of our nostrills and whose safety is worth ten thousand of us protect Lament 4.20 2 Sam 18.3 and patronage my contempt of some others In the next place give me leave to speake a few words in the behalfe of my languishing mother the Church and you shall have them as from a true sonne of the Church in the spirit of meeknesse In which there are three points of moment which struggle for the Truth Power of Ordination Jurisdiction and Discipline The two former I conceive to be essentially in the Bishops as succeeding the Apostles for the latter I humbly conceive the forme already establisht by full act of Parliament to be the purest in Christendome All these I shall now much wrong as being removed from the advantage of bookes which led me away a willing captive to them my unconstrained opinions having not tasted the edge of any sword but that of the Spirit which hath subdued my very minde yet I shall venture upon the strength of that reason quae nec decipitur nec decipit unquam at least to wooe a Toleration of them I have some Scripture by me for the former though I wish I could readily recall those other texts also which have so irrefragably convinced my assent In the 6 of Acts and the 2. The twelve called the multitude of disciples unto them and said v. 3. Seeke ye out among you men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisedome whom we may appoint over this businesse which Dr. Gerhard applyes to the Ordination of Deacons and if to the appointing of them the care of the Apostles did descend much more to the appointing of Priests or Presbyters being a superiour Order it is the kinde of argument à fortiori with which our Saviour himselfe does incourage his Apostles against the feare of Persecution and death it selfe The very haires of your heads are all numbered Feare yee not therefore Mat 27.30 not them that can kill the body nor did the Apostles only do this but the injunction lay upon their successours the Bishops upon Timothy the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians Lay hands suddenly on no man upon Titus the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians 1 Ep. 5 c. 22. v. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest ordaine Elders in every City The case is thus farre plaine that it hath been so 1 Ch. 5 v. it is plainer yet that it may be so by the Concession of the greatest Divine-Antagonists who having received their orders from such hands performe their Ministeriall function without any new qualification Now since their power is confest lawfull on all hands and necessary on some the designe certainly of inlarging the Kingdome of Christ and setting up his throne in the hearts of men might goe on more cheerfully whilst that way of receiving it is indulged to those thousands who can no otherwayes receive it It is as true as Scripture Except we eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloud St John 6.35 we have no life in us That flesh and blood are imparted in the Eucharist that Eucharist by the Ministers of the Word that those whom the Bishops ordain can administer the Sacrament is granted by All that those who are otherwayes ordained cannot say also that they are not ordained is beleeved by many by very much the greater part of Christendome and what then shall become of those many soules who hunger and thirst to be thus made righteous who passionately cry out Lord evermore give us this bread v. 34. when they beleeve the Hand that reaches it out might to as good purpose hold forth a stone and when they call for this blood to drinke they shall only finde that the Well is deep and there is nothing to draw Certainly this is not such a common dyet John 4 6. 1 King 17.6 that with the Prophet Elijah wee should be beholden to the Ravens to bring us bread and flesh in the morning that bread which is flesh also I meane such of whom wee suspect they have nothing else of the Priest about them but the black they weare I cannot before I proceed but humbly desire the Reader to be as impartiall as my selfe and not to conceive any thing here to be dispatcht by an Incendiary but from a conscience which groans under these very pressures and poures it selfe out to heaven for a reliefe I would not like her who dreamt herselfe with childe of a Firebrand adde the least sparke to the combustion already made but only beg a plaister for the sores and scorchings which rankle and fester our soule in the best part of it our minde when thou hast beleeved my sincere purpose I may goe on to tell thee that if we looke upon all Christendome and all antiquity the universality of time and place will be out loud Advocates if I should tell a heathen who like King Agrippa was almost perswaded to be a Christian how much the Church of Rome agrees with us it should be no disadvantage to the Generall Cause and it should have moment too amongst our selves wherein we are at one unlesse with the Invocation of Sâ—â— we would also renounce the calling upon God because the Papists say Our Father especially which had its full operation upon that learned compacted friend of Truth and enemy of Romish errour that our acknowledgement must render unto God the things that are Gods Sir Edwin Sands in spec Eur. p. 77. considering that all
some uses for that a thing in it selfe acknowledged and proved to be lawfull should by being commanded by lawfull authority become unlawfull is very unreasonable unlesse lawfull Magistrates be the only unlawfull things which he that sayes will pronounce himselfe at one against both King and Parliament and at other times to use other liberty is not forbidden and so no Tyrany used upon our Christian liberty Thirdly by the great benefit that accrues to the Congregation in having discreet well formed prayers and so not subject to the Temerity and impertinencies of the sudden effusions and the same still in constant use and so not strange or new to them but such as they may with understanding go along with the Minister and by the helpe of their memory the most ignorant may carry them away for private use he sayes by their memory not by their violence as some late Ignorants have done to carry away the Booke and all and generally those that want such helpes are by this meanes afforded them And lastly that by means of prescribed Liturgies Vnity of Faith and Charity is preserved To these let me adde another practize of our blessed Saviour and occurre to an objection which may perhaps infatuate some deceived minds for I have heard this to be the gain-saying discourse of some who instead of the Spirit of God have set up a selfe-spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that though our Saviour prayed in the very words which King David penned yet he never prayed againe the same prayer a point of the new Creed amongst Commander-Divines but that he did this also you shall finde in Mat. 26. v. 44. for he went away again and prayed the third time saying the same words and that as a preparatory to his sufferings which he saw at hand for behold he is at hand that doth betray me v. 46. perhaps to incourage mankinde after their owne common guise to give a more ample credit to imitation of the last words and actions of one ready to expire as being then even amongst our selves stript of all Pretence and Artifice and nothing else but plaine solid Truths so Lucretius tells us that the World is mans Theatre in which he personates others whilst he expects a continued date of life and is then only himselfe when he begins to dye Besides if it be true as he that doubts it is either an ignorant or a wilfull Atheist that by a mans owne words he shall be justified and by his owne words he shall bee condemned by thy words and by thy words Mat. 12.37 I cannot but presume that those words if they have not the only have yet a more eminent place in those actions which more immediately concurre and contribute to either our heaven or hell and least of all shall I make any scruple that our prayers either by the concomitancy or by the defect of the qualifications required to them are those words and amongst such those especially which are powred out by a publique Congregation and in a place defigned for that purpose which some call the besieging of heaven and the taking it by violence and the conquering of him who is Almighty all of them holy and significant raptures And to this purpose I take it is applicable that of our Saviour ushered in with that authoritatis formula I say unto you that if two of you shall AGREE on earth as touching any thing that they shall aske it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 18.11 where though no doubt the prayer of a single person when that very singlenesse is not evill as springing from an uncharitable separate humour is oft-times acceptable and hath its efficacy yet that God who containes within his One-selfe a Trinity Numero Deus impare gaudet does more liberally heare and grant the united prayers of many which strive to imitate God himselfe and in that very plurality to have but one heart and one minde and though in that verse but two are mentioned that does onely magnifie the mercy of God which will not bee restrayned though but for two's sake and yet he had rather be importuned by a cloud then by a drop with whom it is certainly unacceptable that the people should bee as clouds without raine round about and only the Pastours fleece like Gideons be wet as in Abrahams expostulation with God Gen. 18. the righteousnesse of the fifty had been more powerfull though of the ten only had prevailed to which interpretation the next verse does direct and admonish me where the Bell instantly calls for more company and better it were if it could ring all in for where two or three are gathered together V. 20. which agreement in prayer as it comprehends the object so that I can only pray with them who pray only to God and not with the Church of Rome which invocates Saints and Angells God being the only object of prayer which our Saviour himselfe hath taught me by a necessary exclusion of al others when he commands me to pray Our Father which compellation I am well aware is incompatible to Saint or Angell though they also are in Heaven holy David hath instructed me in the same lession Praise waiteth for thee O God Ps 65.1.2 O thou that hearest prayer so next this agreement comprehends the very matter which if I am not well assured that it is stampt for Orthodox by having pondered the whole substance of it before and past my assent upon it I may perhaps be there as an Auditour I cannot as a supplicant for if I goe to Church onely with an implicite faith and resolve to pray what ever he prayes that possesses the Deske or Pulpit at best is not this implicitenesse somewhat a kin to Popery and may not my very Prayer be turned into sin by owing the inadvertenuses and slips of him who follows no other rule but his peculiar sudden dictates Quicquid in Buccam Venerit at least gives them also leave to interpose of which my selfe have beene severall times a sorrowfull witnesse If it scape that brand does not the other twig of Popery reach and scourge it home which makes ignorance the mother of devotion and what security can wee have that in processe of time this very Surculus will not grow up to be an Arbor Thus like Sampsons Foxes though neither of them will be called Foxes which way soever their heads looke their designe is one to ruine and burne downe the graine whilst it yet ripens that which after its due growth would be our bread of life and since it is true that we receive not what we aske because we aske amisse doe we ever aske more amisse then when we aske wee know not what Or if I am not bound to let my assent waite implicitly upon his what ever ejaculations I must then either not pray at all like him in the Gospell who had not on the wedding garment but was speechlesse or else it