to wipe off the soul Aspersions he casts on our Common Prayer Book and all that use it and to Examine and Confute his Pretences to Pray by the Spirit as St. Paul did which I have done in the ensuing Treatise wherein I have shewn the Vanity and Sophistry of all his Arguments for himself and against us especially those that are fetcht from Scripture and returned them with their genuine Force upon his own Head I have there also Proved that the Spirit does not now Invent and Dictate the very Words of our Prayers as they pretend he does tho' all their Pretences of this Nature are meer Cant and a Device how to please Men more than God for Almighty God who is the same Yesterday to Day and for Ever is not delighted with Novelty Variety and change of Words and therefore our Lord Jesus in his last Agony Prayed Thrice in the same Words Mat. 26.44 and without doubt in the use of that short pithy Form for so it was to him having said it Twice before he was as fervent in his Desires the Third time as he was at First 't is mortal Man only who has itching Ears that loves to have them Tickled with new Expressions and in Complyance with this vain Humour I fear it is that these Men decry all Godly Forms even that of Christ's own Composing and set up their Praying by the Spirit which yet is but a meer Artifice the effect of a good Memory and great Confidence and to cast a Mist before the Peoples Eyes they Chop and Change the very same Prayers beginning where they ended and ending where they began in such a Dexterous manner that their ignorant Hearers perceive it not but believe their Prayers are always New and the Product of the Spirit but more knowing Persons who often hear them discover the Cheat and that they are the very same Prayers still with some little Alterations and so they continue in the use of Forms themselves whilst yet they are so Presumptuous as to Condemn it in others for an Antichristian Practice I shall say no more but refer the Reader to the serious Perusal of the following Discourse where I shall leave him to determine how well or ill I have Managed it thinking it no less vain than improper to attempt the Byasing of his Judgment by a Complemental Preface only I Pray a Blessing may attend him in the judicious Reading what I assure him I have Written for no other end but God's Glory and his Churches good and so I bid him heartily Farewel A DEFENCE OF THE LITURGY Against the Dissenters c. CHAP. I. 'T IS Observable of Satan that when he temped our blessed Saviour to throw himself Headlong from the Pinacle of the Temple he urges Psalm 91.11 12. He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their Hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy Foot against a Stone but the Devil leaves out part of the Verse which made against him To keep thee in all thy ways i. e. the ways of God but not in all thy wandrings from them wherein it would have been Presumption to expect the Divine protection the like Course does John Bunyan take when he urges 1 Cor. 14.15 I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the Vnderstanding also he omits the later part of the Verse I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the Vnderstanding also and he does not only omit this in the Title Page but in six or seven Repetitions afterwards which no doubt was designedly done because if he had once mentioned this it would have been a plain and full Confutation of his Argument deduced from the former part of the Verse and indeed of his whole Book for if we may Sing with the Spirit when we have a form of Words and a Tune also to observe which is supposed and allowed in our present Practice of Psalmody Why may we not as well Pray with the Spirit when we have a form of Words before us Is there not the same Reason for Praying as for Singing with the Spirit when both are done in a form of sound Words This is such a convincing Proof of the lawfulness of Forms of Prayer and that those who devoutly use them may be assisted by the Spirit of God that it overthrows all his Cavils and Exceptions against them and strikes his Cause dead thus the Author stumbles in the Threshold and discovers the cloven Foot in the very entrance and almost in every Page of his Book as is evident from his intolerable Pride and uncharitableness which he shews therein of which I shall give you a taste for to mentionall would be to Transcribe his whole Discourse Page 14 he says That Ignorance Profaness and the Spirit of Envy reigns in the Hearts of those Men that are so hot for Forms of Prayers c. scarce one in Forty of them knows what 't is to be born again to have Communion with the Father through the Son c. they still live Cursed Drunken Whorish and Abominable Lives full of Malice Envy Decit Persecuting of the dear Children of God Oh what a dreadful after-clap is coming upon them Which all their Hypocritical assembling themselves together with all their Prayers shall never be able to help them against or shelter them from and p. 43 44. he says Every cursed Whoremaster Theif and Drunkard Swearer and Perjured Person they that have not only been such in times past but are even so still these I say by some must be counted the only honest Men and all because with their Blasphemous Throats and Hypocritical Hearts they will come to Church and say Our Father Nay farther these Men tho' every time they say to God Our Father do most abominably Blaspeme yet they must be compell'd thus to do and p. 45 46. says he Give me leave to Reason with thee thou blind ignorant Sot it may be thy great Prayer is to say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Is not the Devil thy Father And darest thou say to God Our Father c. But as the Devil presented himself among the Sons of God Job 1. when they were to present themselves before the Father even our Father so is it now because the Saints are commanded to say our Father therefore all the blind ignorant Rabble in the World they must also use the same Words Our Father These are some of the base scurrilous and unchristian Reflections he every where bestows on the Members of the Church of England without excepting any out of that number making them as St. Paul affirms himself and his holy Brethren were accounted in his time 1 Cor. 4.13 As the filth of the World and the off-scouring of all things unto this day and I appeal to all sober and good Men whether this be not the Language of a pround and uncharitable Spirit and of a Tongue set on fire of Hell Jam. 3.6 and
Dead but I have harkened to the Voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me look down from thy holy Habitation from Heaven and bless thy People Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swearest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey And both these Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving were the Jewish People constantly to observe twice every Year in all succeeding Generations when they offer'd their first Fruits and Tythes before the Lord but according to John Bunyan's bantering way he would expose them thus The Wise Men of Moses his Days with himself the Priests and People were so well skill'd that they had both the matter and the manner of their Prayers at their Fingers end seting such a Prayer for such a Day and that twenty Years before it comes one for the Day wherein they Offered their First-fruits another for the Day wherein they Offered their Tythes they have also bounded how many Syllables must be said in every one of their Prayers at their publick Exercises for each of these Offering Days they have them ready for the Generations yet unborn to say so that if there be any weight in this way of Arguing it will cast as much disgrace upon the Prayers of Moses which yet were Dictated and Directed by the infinite Wisdom of Almighty God as upon the Prayers of the Church of England which were also Composed by the same Spirit If it be said that Moses the Jewish Priests and People had not the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we have and therefore they were tyed to Forms from which we are now set free I Answer or rather John Bunyan does it for me p. 53 You do not find any Words of Prayer that we read of come out of the Mouth of Moses when he was going out of Egypt and was followed by Pharaoh Ex. 14.15 and yet he made Heaven ring again with his Cry but it was the inexpressible and unsearchable Groans and Cryings of his Soul in and with the Spirit And this he repeats p. 75. so that by our Adversaries own Confession Moses had the Spirit and could Pray by it even in their Sense as well at least as any Gifted Brother of them all and yet this very Moses sometimes used a Form of Prayer himself and also prescribed a Form of Prayers for others even the Jewish Priests and People to be constantly observed by them on solemn Occasions and on such particular Days and Seasons of the Year 2dly Those two great solemn Festivals which my Author mentions as observ'd by our Church Christmas and Easter have good Authority for their Observation even in the New Testament for can we have better Warrant for our keeping Christmas-Day than the Holy Angels keeping of it in a full Quire as they did Luke 2.13 and suddenly there was with the Angel i. e. who brought the Shepherds the joyful News of Christ's Birth a Multitude of the Heavenly Host Praising God and saying and they did it all in the same Form Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace and good Will towards Men. Now What other Reason can there be given why so many if not all the Angels should be present on Earth at this time and unanimously Worship God except it were to teach us to set apart this Day in all future Ages for a Day of Thanksgiving to God for the greatest Mercy was afforded the World since the Creation even the Birth and Incarnation of the Saviour of it Well may we keep christmass-Christmass-Day our Humane Nature being assum'd into the Godhead and a Saviour being Born to us upon it which is Christ the Lord When the Holy Angels kept this Day whose Nature he did not assume and to whom he was not Born a Saviour as he was to us I shall say no more in behalf of this great Festival but Transcribe a Passage out of the Assemblies Annotations on this portion of Scripture Luke 2. 13. ‖ See the Assemblies Annotations on Luke 2.13 Thus God would say they have this publick Service for so their Multitude made it performed by all who have Knowledge of and Interest in the Birth of Christ as to manifest his Mercy and Truth so to Condemn their stupid Ingratitude who perversely refuse to joyn in this Duty as if general Precepts in Gods Word right Reason and the Examples of Men and Angels inspired by Gods Spirit chosen Witnesses of of our Saviours Nativity and for this same purpose sent by God himself from Heaven that they might thus Celebrate that Day were not sufficient Warrant to lead them to Imitation and joining in an Holy Harmony with them And as for our keeping Easter Day can we have better Authority than St. Pauls Command for it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast i.e. Easter which is our Christian Passover that comes in the room of the Jewish not with the old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness which is a plain Allusion to some of the Typical Ceremonies wherewith the Israelites kept their Passover and proves that we Christians should keep Easter with the substance of those Types even the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth i. e. in a pious Preparation for and devout Participation of the Lords Supper in a Death to Sin and a Resurrection to newness of Life Yet besides this Scriptural Argument I shall add one Consideration more and that is King Charles the Martyrs Quaery propounded to the Parliaments Commissioners at Holdenby April 23. 1647. I desire to be resolved of this Question Why the new Reformers discharge the keeping of Easter The Reason of this Quaery it I conceive the Celebration of this Feast was Instituted by the same Authority which changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lords Day or Sunday for it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept or turned into the Sunday wherefore it must be the Churches Authority that Changed the one and Instituted the other therefore my Opinion is that those who will not keep this Feast may as well return to the Observation of Saturday and refuse the weekly Sunday when any Body can shew me that herein I am in an Error I shall not be ashamed to confess and amend it till when you know my Mind C. R. Lastly As to the Observation of Saints Days those Men have no Reason to upbraid us with it who every Year keep their Festival Days in Memory of the Seiges and prosperous Rebellion they rais'd and maintain'd against their rightful Soveraign Indeed had they Fought for him and been preserv'd and deliver'd in so Just and Loyal a Cause to have kept an Anniversary Day in Remembrance of it wou'd have been a justifiable Practice and so it is to observe those few Saints Days whose Memory our Church requires us once a Year to Celebrate having the like Authority
Liturgy's Vindicated BY THE DISSENTERS Or the Lawfulness of Forms of Prayer and Liturgies PROVED From the very Texts of Scripture urged against them by John Bunyan and the Dissenters By the Author of the Religious Conference between a Minister and his Parishioner about Infant Baptism 2 Pet. 3.16 In which are somethings hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own Destruction LONDON Printed for C. Brome at the Gun at the West end of St. Pauls 1700. THE CONTENTS A PREFACE giving an Account of the Undertaking and secret Juggle of some in pretending to Pray by the Spirit how they are meer Deceivers and Men-pleasers in it Chap. I. Shewing Jo. Bunyan's Imitation of Satan not only in urging Scripture and suppressing so much thereof as makes against him as particularly 1 Cor. 14.15 which is Explain'd and Vindicated from the false Glosses he puts upon it and turned full upon him but also in his intolerable Pride impudent Calumnies and railing Accusations against us and a Question is asked How poor Creatures shall Pray in their Families who have not this pretended Gift of Prayer Which his Party are desired to Answer some better way than by bidding them to Groan Chap. II. Returning an Answer to his Objections against the Common Prayer Book and clearing it from the Imputation of Popery there being nothing thereof in it but Composed by Protestant Martyrs together with sundry Scripture Authorities for the Lawfulness of Forms of Prayer and our Observation of Christmas Easter and other Holy Days in Memory of the Saints Chap. III. Concerning his evasive Answers to our Saviour's Command for the use of the Lord's Prayer Luk. 11.2 which is briefly Explain'd and Confirm'd with some Reflections on his Rules for Prayer as also on the Presbyterian Directory wherein they as much limit the Spirit as we do by a Form as also concerning the falseness of his Assertion That none but Saints ought to say the Lord's Prayer from the known Examples of the Prodigal Son and Rich Man the one calling God and the other Abraham Father and from that Relation which God bears to us by Creation and Redemption he being on both accounts the Father of all Men. Chap. IV. Of the Anabaptists Persecuting Spirit and Cruelty towards other Protestants and particularly towards King Charles the Martyr and his Loyal Subjects and their Canonizing such Persecutors for Saints and Martyrs contrary to the Practice of those that deserved and had that Name among the Primitive Christians whose only Weapons were Prayers and Tears and of that Persecuting Passage in the solemn League and Covenant where they are Sworn to Extirpate us Chap. V. Of some Texts of Scripture Jo. Bunyan brings for the Prohibition of the Common Prayer Book which are all shewn to prove no such thing but rather the Lawfulness of using it Chap. VI. Of two other Places of Scripture which he produceth to the same purpose as Zach. 12.10 and 2 Tim. 3.5 which rightly Explain'd do both conclude against him and for the Lawfulness of Praying by a Form Chap. VII Of his two Scripture Arguments for Praying by the Spirit as 1 Cor. 14.15 and Rom. 8.26 shewing them to be impertinently Alleged and clearing them from the silly Exposition and Paraphrase he makes upon them and proving that one at least if not both of them establish Forms of Prayer and overthrow his Pretences of Praying by the Spirit Chap. VIII Of two plain Proofs that Jo. Bunyan and his Party have not the Spirit which they pretend to viz. 1st The Schism which they have made and continue in the Church with the Rebellions they have rais'd and carryed on against the State 2dly The scurrilous and unchristian Language they utter against us which is exemplified in some farther Instances than were given in the first Chapter Chap. IX Of another Proof to the same purpose from his evil Counsel about the Education of Children whom he would rather have to live without Praying at all than to be taught it by any Form whatsoever which does not savour of the Spirit of God no more does his Beastly Expression in calling this a Nuzzling them up in a Form Chap. X. An Apology for the Author least his Book be Condemned as undervaluing the Holy Spirit and the Assistance which he affords is farther Explained and Stated and Proved not to consist in the Groans or extempore Effusions of Men but in Godly Motions within us and the fervent Desires of the Heart the Life and Soul of Prayer being Faith Hope and Charity and such an Assistance of the Holy Spirit our Church admits and teacheth us to Pray for The Conclusion An Address to all the Members of our Orthodox Church of England not only to Pray but also to Live according to the Common Prayer Book even a Godly Righteous and Sober Life to the Glory of God's holy Name Amen THE PREFACE TO THE READER BEing sensible that some Men will censure me for entring the Lists with such a Combatant where it will be no Credit to Conquer but a mighty Disgrace to be overcome I think my self obliged to give this Account of the Undertaking to reconcile the Reader to what I have hereafter Written least otherwise looking only on the Title-Page he should grow Angry and Impatient and throw away the Book The Discourse I here Answer was sent me from an Anabaptist of my Parish and as I have reason to believe by the Order and Direction of one of their Teachers as a choice Piece which might take me off from the use of the Common Prayer Book whose Morning and Evening Service I wish were constantly offer'd up entire in all other Families as well as mine when it cannot be perform'd in Publick and I am confident they will receive no little Comfort and Satisfaction in so doing but having read it over I found so much Railing Wresting and Mis-applying of Scripture almost in every Page and so little Reason and Truth in any thing he said I once thought his reviling impertinent Discourse unworthy of any other Answer but what the Archangel returned to Satan Jud. 9. The Lord rebuke thee Bunyan But when I considered the high Value the whole Party set upon such slight scurrilous Pamphlets how this was Bequeathed as a Legacy by the last Will and Testament of one of them to a surviving Friend to convince the World That whether Living or Dying they have no Charity for us and how they are contented that themselves and subtle Books should be let alone to Creep into Houses and lead silly Women I may add Men too Captive who are sooner caught and seduc'd with crafty and incoherent Reasoning than with close and sound Arguments and when they have gain'd them for Proselytes and drawn them into the wild Mazes of their numerous Errors 't is very hard to reduce and bring them back into the way of Truth On all these Accounts I judged it needful
Expressions by no means agree to St. Paul who was Converted before this being quite contrary to the Nature of a Regenerate Man who is said in other places of this Epistle to be free from Sin and the Servant of Righteousness Rom. 6.18 That the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 That he has crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 That Sin does not Reign in his mortal Body that he should obey it in the Lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 So that unless we can twist Contradictions we cannot suppose St. Paul to speak of himself in that seventh Chapter but only of a Judaising Christian or a Convinced but not Converted Person and nothing is more usual than for Prophets and Apostles to speak in the Person of others when they say I or We did so or so for we cannot suppose St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles or indeed any sensible Christian so very Ignorant as not to know to whom and thro' whom and for what to Pray and therefore the we know not c. must have respect to other Men and such as were Heathens and Unconverted who had not before heard of Christ or seen the Gospel where there are Rules laid down and those Dictated and written by the Holy Spirit how they and all Men ought to Pray even to our Father which is in Heaven thro' his beloved Son Jesus Christ for such Lawful things as are according to his Will And when Men Pray thus according to that excellent Form which Christ has prescribed his Holy Spirit will also assist them with good Desires so that they shall Heartily wish and long for those things for which they Pray with submission to the Will of God and thus the Spirit helpeth our Infirmities in revealing to us the Holy Scriptures where those that were Ignorant before are taught how to Pray as they ought But our Author goes on with his Paraphrase p. 30.31 The Apostles when they were at best yea when they were assisted with the Holy Ghost yet then they were fain to come off with Sighs and Groans c. Mark here says he they could not so well and fully come off in the manner of performing this Duty as these in our Days think they can But is not this another good Argument for Forms of Prayer when the Apostles themselves stood in need of them and therefore desired Christ to teach them such a Form as John had taught his Disciples Luke 11.1 Lord teach us to Pray as John also taught his Disciples And certainly they had need to be taught such a Form to help them out if they were such Bunglers at Prayer as J. Bunyan represents them viz. That they were not able to make an end of the Prayer they had begun in the Congregation but were forc'd to break off abruptly perhaps in the midst thereof which must needs cause Shame to themselves and Disappointment and Confusion to the whole Assembly which all their Sighs and Groans would never be able to compensate but no Man of Sense can believe the Apostles ever Prayed at this rate in the Church of God where they command all things to be done Decently and in order and to the Edification of the People 1 Cor. 14.26.40 For what Order Decency or Edifying is there in Sighs and Groans which Hypocrites may utter as well as Sincere Christians And when either does it who can tell the meaning of them And may not a Man edifie as much by the Quakers Silent-meetings as by such Sighs and Groans which have no certain and determinate Signification as Words and Speeches have And yet if we may believe Jo. Bunyan these were a good part of the Apostles Prayers even in their publik Assemblies but the Proof which he brings for it is Simple and Ridiculous viz. For the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered Whereas these are not the Groanings of the Apostles or of any Man else upon the Face of the Earth but the Groanings of the Holy-Ghost himself in Heaven where together with the Lord Jesus he maketh Intercession for us at the Right-hand of God and that in a very fervent and powerful manner which St. Paul calls his Groanings which cannot be uttered and therefore can never be applyed to the Groanings of Men which are always heard and make a sound in their very utterance So foolish and presumptuous is this Man in Expounding and Applying this Text especially in endeavouring to prove from it that the Holy Spirit does invent and dictate to us the very words of Prayer for here are no Words at all proceeding from the Spirit but only Groanings How then can this place prove that the Spirit suggests to us the Words of our Prayer when he interceeds for us without Words even with Groanings but pray mistake not not with such Groanings as Jo. Bunyan and his Party makes and may be heard in every corner of the House and in the very Streets but with Groanings that cannot be uttered And that these are the inexpressible Desires of Christ and the Spirit of God in Heaven is plain from Rom. 8.27 He that searcheth the Hearts i. e. Almighty God whose Prerogative it is knoweth what is the Mind of the Spirit because he maketh Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God So that this Text also as all the rest turns upon the Objector and proves that the Spirit does not put Words into their Mouths nor cause those Groanings which are so loud and frequent in their Meetings the Spirits Groanings here being said to be without noise or sound without utterance or expression they are such as cannot be uttered Whence I may well conclude that Jo. Bunyan 's extemporary Prayers his dismal Groans and those Fits and Agonies of the Spirit which he says he was sometimes in when he was strongly perswaded to leave off and to seek the Lord no longer p. 71. I may conclude I say that this is a great Cheat of the Devil and Antichrist by which he does delude and deceive the World by which Men would perswade themselves and others that they Pray with the Spirit that they Preach with the Spirit and Hear with the Spirit even with the same extraordinary Spirit which St. Paul had when there is no such thing but they are rather possessed by an evil Spirit which makes them think and speak so highly and vain-gloriously of themselves and so contemptibly and uncharitably of others their Mouth speaketh great swelling Words having Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage These be they that separate themselves Sensual having not the Spirit Jud. ver 16.19 CHAP. VIII HAving said in the Conclusion of the former Chapter that J. Bunyan and his Party have not the Spirit to which they so much pretend I come now to prove this Charge against them from two substantial Arguments 1st Their Disobedience to their Lawful
in the Holy Scripture for their continual Observation as Psal 116.15 Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of the Saints and 't is the Days of their Death and Martyrdom and not of their Birth which we Commemorate not their first Days in which they were Born into the World but the last Days in which they were Born into an happy Eternity and on these Days we do not only Bless God for those eminent Vertues and Graces which Shone in them but also we desire him to enable us to follow their good Examples that being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses we may run with Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus their Captain General who with them has endured the Cross and receiv'd a Crown in Heaven and by this means we do what we can to perpetuate their Memory on Earth as God expects we should Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be had in everlasting Remembrance And this the Primitive Christians began by first keeping the Day of these Saints Martyrdom at the very Place where they suffer'd and this after Ages follow'd by Celebrating it in all other Places where Christianity was professed and I doubt not but it will be continued in all future Ages even unto the end of the World among all Orthodox Christians CHAP. III. HAving in the former Chapter detected the Sophistry and Fallaciousness of John Bunyans Arguments against Forms of Prayer and shewn how they rather conclude for them and against his Pretences to Pray by the Spirit I shall now proceed to discover the Weakness and Folly of his Answer to that convincing Proof for the Lawfulness of Forms even our Saviour's Command for it Luke 11.2 When ye Pray say our Father c. To this he says p. 80. I cannot think that Christ intended it as a stinted Form of Prayer because he lays it down diversly But how diversly Mat. 6.9 our blessed Lord says After this manner Pray ye Our Father c. the plain import of which is that this ought to be the Pattern by which we shou'd Compose all our Prayers but least his Disciples who had desired their Master to teach them a Form of Prayer as John Baptist had taught his Disciples shou'd think it well enough to have an Eye only to this Pattern in Composing all their Prayers by tho' in the mean time they never made use of this very Form it self therefore in Luke 11.2 our Saviour said unto them When ye Pray say Our Father c. i. e. do not content your selves to Pray after this manner in other Prayers of your own Composing them according to it but also use this very Prayer it self together with your own of the like Nature that putting up your Petitions to Almighty God with a good Heart in Christ's own Words ye may be sure to be heard and let any honest Christian but Read and Compare these two Evangelists together in this Point and I am confident he will acknowledge that Christ must needs intend this Prayer of his should it self be daily used and also the true Standard of all our Devotions and consequently he must needs intend it for a Form or else his Words and Intentions would not agree which is Blasphemy to imagine But out Author answers farther p. 81. We do not find that the Apostles did ever observe this Form as such neither did they admonish others so to do search all their Epistles c. But did not the Apostles do many things which are not written there As St. John says there are also many other things which Jesus did which are not written every one of them in the Gospel Joh. 21.25 For were not all the Apostles Baptized And yet we do not Read in the New Testament of the Baptism of any one of them so the Apostles might and without doubt did make use of the Lords Prayer tho' there be no mention of it in their Epistles otherwise how were they Faithful in keeping Christs Commandments themselves this being one of them When ye Pray say Our Father c. and this doubtless they taught others to use also or else they were not Faithful in executing Christs Commission who at the delivery thereof speaks thus Mat. 28.19.20 Go ye therefore and Proselyte all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have Commanded you and this being one thing that Christ had Commanded them when ye Pray say Our Father c. we cannot suppose that they fail'd to teach others to observe this also as well as Baptism or any other Gospel Duty But after all his trifling Answers to this invincible Objection Jo. Bunyan confesseth p. 81. That Christ by these Words Our Father which art in Heaven doth instruct his People what Rules they should observe in their Prayers to God And if it is a Rule for all our Prayers is not this as great a Confinement of the Spirit as the limiting of it to this or any other Form of sound Words This Author p. 75. and those that made the Directory tho' they are Enemies to all Forms of Prayer and therefore abolished our excellent Liturgy yet lay down certain Rules which we must observe in Praying to Almighty God which is indeed to do that thing themselves which they condemn in us and call a Restraining of the Spirit for to dictate to the Spirit the Heads of Prayer which he must insist upon and leave him at liberty only in the choice of Words is every whit as much if not more a restraining of the Spirit than only to appoint the Words and leave him at liberty in the choice of the Sense the Matter of Prayer being more considerable than Words and the Sense more valuable than Language If therefore the Spirit must be left free why do they themselves confine him in imposing on him the Heads of his Prayer As if he needed help for Invention as our * See his excellent Book p. 686. Royal Martyr observed tho' not for expression or as if Matter did not as much stint and obstruct the Spirit as if it were cloathed in and confined to fit Words so slight and easy is the Leger-de-main which will serve to delude the Vulgar And from hence any one may well conclude that these Men instead of being inspired with the Spirit of God are possessed with the Spirit of Pride and Singularity what else is the meaning of their taking away the Book of Common Prayer and yet establishing a Directory in its room which is as much a restraining of the Spirit as the other What else is the meaning of that Passage in the entrance of the Directory p. 5 Let all enter the Assembly not irreverently but in a grave and seemly manner taking their Seats or Places without Adoration or Bowing themselves towards one Place or other But that because when we enter the Church the Place of