God's Holy Spirit And in the 30 verse it is said that Hezekiah the King and the Princes commanded the Levites to sing Praises unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Seer It was for that good purpose that David compos'd all his Divine Psalms that they might be of a constant use in the praising of and the praying unto our great God And after the Jews return from Babylon Nehemiah commands the same use to be observed Nehem. 2.45.46 And as it was not lawful to change these Forms so likewise it may not be lawful for any but such only as were inspired of God or were to take care of Religion Man de Missa Lib. 1. cap. 5. to introduce in God's Divine Service any new Forms as may be easily proved But this use of Set Forms of Prayers and praising of God is not Jewish it is grounded upon such solid and moral Reasons that have recommended it to the Christian Church St. John the Baptist in imitation of the Pharisees gives a Set Form of Prayer to his Disciples And Christ our Saviour to comply with the desires of his Followers teaches them a Set Form opposite to the long and tedious Forms used by the Scribes and Pharisees Luke 11.1 2. And not only in this particular but also in the receiving of the Paschal Lamb Christ shews himself to be no Enemy of Forms and Humane Institutions when they tend to a Godly purpose as may appear by the singing of the Hymn after the Celebration and by the posture of leaning And St. Paul likewise in imitation of his great Master commands Timothy 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. That Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men That is that he should appoint in the Churches of his Diocess such Set Forms of Prayer as might be offered up to God For Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour That this was the intent of St. Paul may appear by the practice of the Christian Churches in the next Age to the Apostles for in the Ancientest Fathers we read of the Set Forms of Prayer See Conc. Laodicea can 19.8 Miletan Con. can 2. commonly used in God's Publick Worship And we have yet extant some of those Primitive Liturgies of the People of God differing in many things for the Wisdom of God's Holy Spirit hath left the Composure of these Prayers to the Rulers of the distinct Churches that they should appoint such Forms as were most agreeable with the Tempers and Manners of their People such as will encourage Devotion and Piety and serve best for the Promotion of God's Glory Likewise in these later Days since the beginning of the Reformation all the Churches of our Brethren beyond the Seas have their Set Forms of Prayer from which it is not lawful to vary and which are appointed by the authority of their Rulers Never any attempted the changing of them their People never mutined against them or against Forms in general Never any person was allowed in publick to prefer his own Fancies to these Prayers commanded to be used in the Church But in the Churches of every Nation there is a constant and an universal Uniformity in the Publick Worship of our God And this good Order is Religiously kept without any fear of Superstition This Universal Practice of all Ages Churches and Nations that have instituted and constantly used Set Forms of Prayer in God's Publick Worship is sufficient to justifie the Religious Orders of our Church from all scandalous aspersions of our mistaken Brethren But Reason and Religion and the general good of Christian Societies recommended this Practice and Use to us as well as to them I suppose no person can deny but set Forms are absolutely necessary for the information instruction and benefit of the more ignorant and younger sort who must be taught how to ask their Conveniencies from God's Bounty and in what Name to make their Addresses to his Divine Majesty for without this information from Men we find them not in a Capacity to pray and speak to God as they should unless they be inspired from above which is not usual To remedy their ignorance and weakness the Church of England commands constantly the use of Set Forms of Prayer in publick that by a frequent repetition we might imprint them in the memories of Persons not able to read and that otherwise have no means to learn them Therefore generally to discourage or condemn the use of Set Forms of Prayer is to deprive a great part of Christianity from the comfort and advantage of praying to God and it is to discover an Enmity against Religion which no good Disciple of Christ can possibly harbour I could here shew many horrid inconveniencies that would happen amongst us had we no Set Forms of Prayer but for brevity sake I omit the mention of them for I conceive it is not so much at Set Forms of Prayer that our Zealots quarrel as it is at their publick use in God's Divine Worship and the exclusion of all others of their own or other Mens Fabrick at such solemn times and occasions But let Mens abilities and gifts of Prayer be never so signal and extrordinary I dare affirm and can easily prove by Scripture and Reason that they are not to be allowed to cause their own Inventions to justle out the usual Service of the Church That Forms of Prayer are to be preferred whether they be declared memoriter or read in a Book to all the most excellent extemporary speeches or Prayers and that constant and setled Forms in a well governed Church are agreeable with the Word of God and the common good Were there no other reason to recommend them but that decency which St. Paul desires to be observed in Christ's Church in all its publick Practices and Divine Worship it would be sufficient to make us embrace an Uniformity both in manner as well as matter for how ridiculous would a Nation appear to all unbyassed Souls if there were no order if every Congregation should be differing in their actions if one Minister should read when the other sings if one should spend the Sabbath in speaking and another in praying or if one should pray for one thing another for the contrary or if the prayers were discrepant if one Minister should pray in one manner others follow the dictates of a Rubrick of another make what a wide Gate would this deformity open to all kind of Errors Heresies and Blasphemies And how ridiculous should we appear to all Foreign Churches We have already experienced sufficiently the danger of this general liberty allowed to all Men to pray what they list in the Ears of the People For not to mention the Extravagancies that some have been guilty of the Whimsies and Blasphemies that they have bolted forth
force his Body to observe all the motions of Respect commanded in the Rubrick Let him stand up when we give glory to God and sing forth his praises Let him kneel in Prayer and outwardly observe a due reverence and he shall find that his former aversion will insensibly wear away and by degrees he will bring his Soul to a hearty and religious compliance with those godly Forms of Prayer which before he could never use with any satisfaction to his mind he shall find his unhappy humour of discontent evaporate it self and his Body draw after the Soul and its faculties to a sincere worshipping of our good God in the manner that is practised amongst us Fifthly To use the Prayers of the Church with that devotion that is needful a frequent meditation upon them is very requisite A Meditation I mean upon the necessity of those things that are there desired upon the advantage of Uniformity and Unity in God's divine Worship upon their agreeableness with holy Scripture its Doctrines and Expressions upon the express Commands of the King and the wise Councils of our Nation under four or five Kings successively who unanimously enjoin the use of these Prayers in the publick Worship of God upon the decency and reasonableness of the Ceremonies Order and manner of our Service upon the frivolousness and Folly of all Objections against it upon the obstinacy and invincible hatred of all Objections A meditation also is requisite to this purpose upon several matters suitable to these godly Forms of Prayer Such Meditations I mean as may elevate the Soul to prepare and dispose it for a Holy Communion with God and inflame our affections in order to a more zealous offering up of the publick Prayers of the Church to the Divine Majesty Besides to perswade the judgment and remove all mistakes I recommend to thee the perusal of a Rationale upon the Common-Prayer that if by any means thou mayest be perswaded to a religious and devout conformity in publick to the Order of our Church But all this while methinks I hear a sort of Zealots amongst us Extol and Cry up the Praying by the Spirit 4. Particular and that in opposition to the reading of the Forms prescribed by the Church I must speak a word to rectifie their mistakes and to prevent the mischiefs which are thereby intended For this good purpose I shall First examine what Praying by the Spirit is in the sense of St. Paul Secondly I shall prove that for the most part in all Extemporary fluencies of Prayer though they be the gifts of the Spirit such persons as use them at that very instant can scarce be said to pray in the Spirit Thirdly I shall plainly demonstrate that the easiest and surest way to Pray in the Spirit is to take the assistance of well composed Forms of Prayer and to have them either in a Book before our Eyes or well imprinted in our Memories They are in a grievous Error that imagine that St. Paul's praying in or by the Spirit opposeth the Practice of our Church of England and strengthens the irregular Devotions of the gifted Brethren For if you please to Examine the meaning of St. Paul you shall find that he never intended any such matter In the 6th Chap. to the Ephesians and 18 ver he exhorts them to pray with all Prayer and Supplication in every Season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Spirit which he cannot understand of the Prayers proceeding from the extraordinary inspirations or abilities bestowed upon us by God the giver of every good gift because such inspirations are not common to all and every one hath not such a quick Fancy or voluble Tongue to be able to pray in this manner so that every Person is not in a capacity to fulfil this Command which as all other Commands of God is proportioned and hath a special regard to Mens faculties and abilities Therefore seeing these words are directed to every Christian they relate not to the gift but to that which is commonly styled the Spirit or rather to the Duty of Prayer which every Christian may peform by using endeavours St Paul's meaning therefore is that we should in our Prayers to God not be content with the Lip Service but inwardly heartily and affectionately to pray to him and employ all the abilities of the Soul in offering them up to God for in this part of our Devotions we must observe the same method as in the others and act with the same abilities Now St. Paul in the 5th Chap. to the Ephesiens and the 19th ver adviseth them to make Melody in their Hearts to the Lord. Here is that spiritual Service required from us a serious real and hearty Worship wherein the Soul is concerned as well as the Body Likewise our Saviour Christ in answer to the Woman of Samaria tells her that God is a Spirit and that they that will worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth That is in opposition to the Corporal appearances of the Jews at Jerusalem an inward and soul Worship without which all our most assidual attendances upon holy Duties are frivolous and vain In the same sense we are to understand St. Paul's praying and singing with the Spirit in 1 Cor. 14.14 for he expresly saith if I pray in an unknown Tongue my Spirit prayeth He caleth it his Spirit that is his Soul which must be concerned in all our Prayers to God either by composing them and offering them or else by presenting the Prayers already composed in such a manner with the understanding and affections that they may proceed from us as our own I confess St. Jude's words ver 20. seems to favour the contrary interpretation when he adviseth to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Holy Ghost Which words the admirers of new Modes and extemporary Prayers understand of the gift of Prayer that we should depend upon the Spirit of God and expect from his secret inspirations the matter and manner of our Prayers without limitting our selves and this unlimited Being to any certain Form That we should make use of those expressions as proceed immediately from his divine suggestions But this can never be the meaning of this wise Apostle for though it were true what this interpretation supposeth that all the faithful have the gift of Prayer and are inspired with the Holy Ghost That in that Duty he governs their Tongues and Fancy and furnishes them with proper expressions words and matter which I confess may happen in extraordinary occasions yet in our ordinary Devotions to expect such extraordinary movings of God's Holy Spirit in our Souls not to contribute any thing of our selves but our weaknesses and unpreparedness and wholly to depend upon the Holy Ghost is a presumption and indiscretion which agrees not with God's usual methods of acting with his Creatures neither in Nature nor in Grace for his Blessings and Power appear commonly in our Religious endeavours and if he gives
the Devil hath made use of this Engine to overthrow the Faith of many silly Souls by insinuating the most dangerous and damnable Errors with the gift of praying extempore In the late unnatural Rebellion Men took occasion in their extemporary Prayers to vent not only the most pernicious mistakes but also disobedience to the Civil Magistrate and from the Pulpit have poisoned many to our sorrow with most horrid and Anti-Christian Principles which to this day no Reason nor Remedy can cure But if no such danger were to be feared from extemporary praying if all Men so employed had the Integrity to intend it only to God's Glory and the publick quiet yet such Prayers cannot have that mature consideration nor those judicious expressions as a well Meditated Prayer judiciously composed and Examined And doth it become the respect we owe to so wise a God to be so bold as to present unto him any thing that comes first upon the Lips the hasty productions of our unadvised Fancies or the irregular expressions of our minds without considering before whether the things we petition for and the manner of asking be acceptable to him and agreeable with his revealed Will and Word And in regard we are so apt to mistake and are so full of infirmities does it not become our Christian discretion to weigh and seriously to examine what we are to say to so Wise and Divine a Majesty that our weaknesses might not hinder the effects of our Prayers especially in a publick Congregation where our mistakes may have many ill consequences where not only God and our selves are concerned but also many of divers tempers Capacities and Estates whose Indigencies we represent to a merciful God Now if Forms of Prayer are to be therefore used let any Man of Reason judge impartially which are the most proper our own or the Churches the fond productions of our private Imaginations or the judicious Prayers composed by the grave Rulers of our Christian Congregations I doubt not but several have had and yet have an extraordinary Gift in Praying to move and stir up the Affections of their Hearers This Gift therefore which proceeds from the Holy Ghost for the benefit of the Church requires that we should suffer it to perform that good which is thereby intended This may be done on certain occasions and times and immediately before the Sermon And I suppose that no moderate Christian will then prohibit such gifted persons to employ that ability which they have received from God for the advantage of the publick if they make use of it discreetly judiciously and soberly without affectation or vain glory or ostentation But there is no allowance therefore to be given to the pride and vanity of others to prefer the fond composures of their indiscreet Fancies to the pious and regular Prayers of the Church And it may be justly feared in such Cases that voluntary and new Prayers expressed with vehemency may cause ignorant and foolish Men who are quickly weary with the ordinary Devotions to disesteem slight and neglect them and to be continually craving those extemporary Ejaculations of gifted Men and that from persons insufficient who may be thereby tempted to gratifie the others humour to their own and the publick hurt However the gift of praying is not hindred by our publick Forms from performing the benefit which is thereby intended but foolish Men are thereby restrained from those mischiefs which they might bring upon themselves and others by so great a Liberty as they have had during our Anarchy Moreover as it should be the intent of all Humane Constitutions in every Society to aim directly at the general good of all and specially in the Church to aim at the Benefit and Comfort of the weakest and dullest capacities as well as of the quickest apprehensions such publick Prayers ought to be received which sute with the meanest abilities Now I dare affirm that these extemporary Prayers are not of that nature They may be so happy to please the Corrupt Humour of the Hearer with the novelty of the invention with the vehemency of the expression with the pleasantness of the affected Tone but they are not so fit to be publickly offered up to God as the known approved and ordinary Prayers of the Church and are not able to prevail so much upon our affections were we but inwardly moved with a right zeal for God's Glory Neither can we so readily say Amen to such sudden Prayers proceeding from these gifted Men as to those with which we are perfectly well acquainted and which we know to be agreeable with God's will for in such cases we have need at every expression to make a judicious reflection whether what is said is true or false right or wrong before we can heartily subscribe to such Prayers whereas there is no such need in the Publick Prayers of the Church which we understand before There we have nothing else to do but to stir up the affections of our Souls that we may join unanimously together and offer them up to God Therefore the gift of extemporary praying is not of such use and carries not with it that real Benefit which some lightly imagine I am certain that persons of a weak and slow apprehension are not so able and apt to receive benefit from them as from the known Prayers of the Church The unusual expressions of other new Prayers may be better able to move their Fancy but they are not so able to stir up the affections of such as bring an unprejudiced mind and that look more upon the things than the manner of expressing for other dainty Ears and of a quicker apprehension it may be that a new and eloquent Prayer may be more acceptable and more beneficial than to the duller sort but it requires from them a greater Labour and an extraordinary Motion and Activity of the Soul as well as an extraordinary ability to joyn in such Prayers And for the persons that utter them if they be extempore without any premeditation and of a long continuance I dare affirm that they are full of imperfections and confusion in the composure and that the persons that speak them are far from the disposition needful in Prayer Whilst their Hands and their Eyes are lifted up their Souls and its Faculties are employed in seeking for fit words to declare the conceptions of the mind and in the mean time it thinks not of and is not able as it should to call upon God and concern its inclinations in the Requests that are presented to him For sudden Ejaculations and Emissions of the Soul and Mind to God the same reason holds not because there is not the same order contrivance and agility of the Soul required For these and other causes Set Forms either before us in a Book or recorded in our Memories which may as suddenly supply us with the Words and matter are the best methods of praying to God chiefly in his Publick Worship But if we
their prejudices therefore against our Rubrick are more dangerous But if a judicious and pious Soul would take the pains to sift them out and examine the Causes of their invincible prejudices they shall either find none or such slender ones as may cause us to wonder at their stiffneckedness and strange fancies Such I am sure as renders them most ridiculous to all foreign Churches of Christ Their most ordinary and popular Complaint is that it is Popish and taken out of the Mass-Book An Error which any Man will acknowledge if he will but compare our Prayers with the Popish Prayers of the Liturgy of Rome Can that be Popish which opposeth all the Errors and mistakes of the Papists which teacheth us to pray for God's assistance and direction against all the Heresies Plots and Conspiracies of the Pope which was in use in the Christian Church before ever there was any Anti-Christian Pope at Rome Can that be reckoned to be Popish which is agreeable with the Revelations of the Holy Spirit with the Doctrines and belief of the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and which their most Orthodox Divines Embrace as most consonant with their Faith and Piety The Creed the ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer may with as much likelihood be said to be Popish or to be taken out of the Mass-Book because the Papists have them in their Breviarium To all unprejudiced persons this accusation appears a meer Calumny unless any of those refined Souls could spy out and shew us any particular in the Common-Prayer which savours of the Romish Errors and tends to promote the Pope's Interest amongst us But it is the usual practice of abusive tongues when they cannot instance any certain Crime to bring their accusation in gross that their malice may be less discernable and their charge may be more weighty But let not the vain and groundless conceits of Popery and Superstition deter thee my Christian Brother from making use with Comfort to thy Soul of these Godly Prayers Let not these mistaken Brethren infect thy judgment with the same troublesom Error Examin and try search into every Corner of this Book and see whether thou canst find any colour of Popery that is to say any sign of those Errors which are in Controversie between us and the Papists Let not their impostures prevail so much upon thy discretion as to cause thee to take for Popery what is agreeable with Christ's true Religion and Doctrines It hath always been the glory of our Church of England to be most conformable of all other Churches to the belief Government and Practices of the Primitive and first Churches of Christ Therefore in this of the Liturgy our Church recommends that manner of praying which is most like that of the first Ages and which is most answerable to our Government and condition as our glorious Martyr and our late Soveraign of Blessed Memory declares in vindication of the Prayers of the Church in his incomparable Book All other accusations as well as this savour more of malice and displeasure than right Reason and tend to this ungracious end to abolish Order and Method in Prayer and to introduce a sad and unreasonable Confusion in our Worshipping of God Let therefore every good Christian take heed if he himself hath such an invincible prejudice against these Forms enjoyned in our Church that he cannot use them himself with any Comfort to his Soul that he disturb not others minds with the same Schismatical mistakes and spread not abroad what I could wish were consined to the bottomless Pit Let him not hinder others from the Benefit which they may reap from a hearty and zealous Offering up of these Prayers to God Abstain my Christian Brother from Blaspheming that which thou dost not perfectly understand or that which thou hatest without a just cause Draw not others into the same prejudice and be not uncharitable to think our Devotions not acceptable to our good God because thou hast an implacable displeasure against them Think not that Piety is confined to thy Breast alone and to those of thy Sect. Lay aside I beseech thee that bitterness that peevishness and froward temper which makes thee fret at our good Order and Christian Discipline If thou perceivest any faults coldness dulness or unhandsom Actions in private persons charge not their miscarriages upon our Church or Rubrick but be so reasonable not to proclaim thine unreasonable distastes to the prejudice of others and thy self Sixthly I cannot forget to mention another Cause of Mens contempt of our Forms and Rubrick which is That they are brought up in the ignorance of that manner of presenting them to God which might cause them to meet with true comfort and real benefit For I know some that have constantly attended at the Publick Prayers of the Church and have for many years scarce omitted any opportunity that did invite them yet because they knew not how to use them as they should they have not at any time found that inward content which they now think to receive from new Modes of Prayer and at last have totally forsaken them crying out most bitterly against their former Formality luke-warmness and indifferency in Prayer As if that unfit temper proceeded from the Prayers and not from the ignorance of their minds which when it is strengthened by prejudice Education or Interest is the greatest cause of their dissatisfaction at our Prayers used in the Church and that which deprives them of the advantages which they might receive from them This Ignorance is the greatest Enemy of our Liturgy and of our publick peace which if any person be willing to expel for his own and the Churches benefit let him seriously consider and make use of these directions which will shew him how to offer up our Prayers with comfort to his Soul I have already set down general directions to pray well which every good Christian ought to learn to practice in all Prayers presented to God Third particular but besides those which sute with all tempers and sorts of Men I suppose that some advices besides may be given more particularly and more proper for those persons amongst us that are dissatisfied with our Prayers and Liturgy and prejudiced against it Some advices I mean that may have a special regard to their causeless mistakes and the Prayers of the Church And truly I judge many stand in great need of these directions who are well skilled in other kinds of Devotion for prejudice here suffers them not to learn or at least not to practice what their affection teaches them in other Cases to perform without a Teacher if we may have the Charity to believe what they affirm That they are truly and zealously affected in the Prayers which are of their Ministers Composure and that they can joyn their hearts in Devotion with them for I very much question whether those persons that seem outwardly to be so disposed are really so in