Vzziah the King would venture upon the Execution of the Priest's Office we read that it was said to him It pertaineth not to thee Uzziah to burn Incense unto the Lord but to the Priests of the Sons of Aaron who are Consecrated to burn Incense 1 Chron. 26.18 Herein I suppose we are all agreed and I know of none but Erastus that affirmed the contrary who I think hath few or no Followers 2. Secondly There is an External Political Power of Protecting Ordering and Well-governing the Church and this is the Power of the Sword which is committed to the Civil Magistrate only who is therefore said to be The Minister of God to us for Good and an Avenger to execute Wrath upon him that doeth Evil. Rom. 13.4 And as King Vzziah was blam'd for medling with the Power of the Keys so was Peter check'd for drawing the Sword and commanded to put it up as a Weapon that appertain'd not to him Matt. 26.52 These are two distinct Powers the one appointed to work upon the Inward the other upon the Outward Man and both ordain'd by Christ for the edifying and well-ordering of his Church As for the Ministers Power In Spiritualibus or the due Exercise of the Sacred Function there is no Dispute But the Magistrate's Power Circa Spiritualia i. e. Whether it extends to Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes is the Knot to be untied For the clearing whereof I must shew wherein the Civil Magistrate's Power in Church-matters doth mainly consist that we way see how we agree about it 1. And First The Prince or Civil Magistrate hath a Power of protecting and defending the Church and every Member of it in the profession and practice of true Religion For this end chiefly was the Sword put into his Hand which he is therefore requir'd Not to bear in vain Rom. 13.3 4. but to draw it forth to the Terror of Evil doers and the defence of them that do well 1 Pet. 2.14 'T is the Magistrate's Province and Duty to maintain the Church in its Rights and to preserve it in that fulness of Power and Privileges which Christ hath Communicated to it Hence Kings are stil'd Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church Isai 49.23 And we are bid to pray for them that under their power and protection We way lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Tim. 1 2. v. This is granted on all Hands 2. Secondly The Prince hath a Power of regulating and well-ordering Matters appertaining to the Church 2 Chron. 29.5 24. As keeping Ecclesiastical Persons to their respective Offices and Duties preserving the Places of Publick Worship from Sacriledge and Profanation Establishing a Regular and Uniform way of Divine Service to be observed in them 2 Chron. 31.4 providing and securing a convenient Maintenace to such as serve at the Altar He may reform the Church when it is corrupted in its Doctrine Worship or Discipline 1 Tim. 5.17 These things we find practis'd and commended in all the good Kings both of Israel and Judah Who took care to remove the Impediments and encourage the exercise of true Religion Again Princes may and ought as Vice-roys of Christ's Kingdom to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church by suppressing Schism and purging it from Idolatry and Superstition To this end they may guard it with good Laws and may likewise convene the Ecclesiastical Governors to meet in Synods and Convocations to consult and agree upon such Canons as the Necessities of the Church shall require And because the Power of the Church is wholly Spiritual and some bold Obstinate Persons may despise and slight the Censures of the Church which may thereby be render'd ineffectual therefore 3dly Thirdly The Prince may and ought to ratifie and enforce such wholesome Laws by Temporal Sanctions and Penalties thereby correcting such Disorderly Members and punishing the Breach and Contempt of Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions This we find was the practice of Christian Kings and Emperors ever since they became Christian For when the Church was either corrupted by Error or infested by Schism they interposed their Power to put a Check to such Disorders and partly by their own imperial Edicts and partly by the Canons of Councils call'd by their Authority and enforc'd by Civil Coercions put a stop to the spread and increase of them And this is no more than what is necessary for the peace and good Government of the Church For tho' the Spiritual Rod of Excommunication hath indeed Terror enough in it to be dreaded of All that have any sense or care of their Souls yet because too many are so harden'd in their Schism and Errors as not to feel the smart of it The Secular Prince may and ought to second the Spiritual with the Temporal Rod to awe such Offenders with Corporal Corrections as are fearless and insensible of the Censures of the Church In a word because All things in the Church of Christ are required to be done Decently and in Order therefore Kings and Princes who are the Guardians and 1 Cor. 14. Protectors of the Church are to take care of the Decency and Solemnity of the publick Worship perform'd in it To effect which they have not only a Directive and Mandatory Power to make Laws and give Rules about it but likewise a Coactive and Compulsory Power to make them observ'd Without which they can never attain their End All this is granted by the most Eminent Presbyterians in their Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici Jus Div. c. 9. And the same is acknowledg'd likewise by Mr. Baxter Plea for Peace p. 30 99. both in his Plea for Peace and Treatise of Episcopacy Now these Concessions are abundantly enough for our purpose Epise p. 144 192 193. For if Publick Forms of Prayer have the Authority of Ecclesiastical Governours in Convocation and be likewise ratifyed and enforc'd by the Sanctions of the Civil Power there can be no just exception against the Authority that enjoyns them And you may be satisfied from hence who those Superiors and Rulers are that may command an invariable Form which was the thing you question'd and I hope is now to your Satisfaction answer'd So that if there be no unlawfulness in Forms of Prayer which you have already granted you may easily see a strong Obligation lying upon you to use those that are commanded and no other which was the thing to be proved But you ask What if the King should command one Translation Version or Form of Prayers and the Bishops another whom must we obey Sir This in our Case is a meer Cavil because all Authority both Civil and Ecclesiastical agree in the prescribed Forms And we hope they will never Clash or interfere in that or any other thing for the publick good of Church or State But if it should so happen which God forbid You must know That tho' Christ erected a standing Form of Spiritual Government
to be with them to the end of the World Matth. 28.19 And St. Paul's Wo be to me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 But to how bad Purposes these are applied to your Case will be obvious to any that will consider the different State of things in the Apostles and our Days For the Apostles lived under Heathen Governors who for bad them to speak in the Name of Christ and required them to stifle that Message which they had in Charge to deliver and therefore might well ask the Question whether it were not more fit to Obey God rather than Man Whereas Thanks be to God we live under Christian Princes who not only embrace the Christian Religion themselves but guard it with good Laws to propagate its Doctrin and preserve its Peace and Unity Again the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from Men or by the Hands of Men but immediately from Christ himself and therefore might not be restrained or be deposed by Men. Whereas we tho' we Execute a Function whereof God is the Author and are also called of God to it yet we are called and ordain'd by the Hands and Ministry of Men and may therefore by the Ministry of Men be deposed and restrain'd from the Exercise of it Hence we find the Old Non-conformists declaring That whilst the Bishops suspend and deprive according to the Laws of the Land so long we account their Action therein as an Act of the Church which we must and ought to Reverence and yield Obedience to and if it be said The Church is not to be obey'd when it Deprives or Suspends for such Causes as we in our Consciences know to be insufficient They answer That it lieth in them to Depose who may Ordain and they may Shut that may Open or else there could be no Proceedings against any Guilty Person that depraves the Doctrin or disturbs the Peace of the Church who will always think or pretend themselves guiltless Furthermore the Apostles had such an immediate Guidance and Assistance of the Holy Ghost as led them into all Truth so that they could not err in the delivery of their Message whereas we cannot now without Vanity pretend to any such immediate Assistances or if we should daily Experience would apparently confute it Men frequently falling into those Errors both in Opinion and Practice that make it necessary to restrain them These things well consider'd plainly shew the Difference between the Apostles Case and ours in respect of the publick Exercise of the Ministry which is so manifest That St. Paul's Wo be to me if I Preach not the Gospel might be sometimes inverted into Wo be to the Gospel if Preached by such Men. But 't is Sacrilege say you to alienate Consecrated Persons from the Work to which they are ordain'd Sir If any Consecrated Persons will alienate themselves from their proper Work through their own Default at whose Door must the Sacriledge lie Do they not rob God and the Church too of the Service they owe to both by rendring themselves unfit or uncapable of performing it And may not Hereticks Schismaticks and other notorious Offenders be depriv'd or restrain'd from the Exercise of the Ministry for fear of Desecrating such Holy Men But the Notorious Necessities of the People say you many of which are in darger of perishing through Ignorance Sensuality and Debauchery call for our Assistance Sir There are Regular and Well qualified Men enough in the Church of England to instruct the People in all things necessary to their Salvation and Thanks be to God there is no want of such as are both able and willing to do so our Churches are all open where the Fundamentals of Religion are plainly unfolded the Rules of a good Life earnestly press'd and the Danger of Debauchery and all vicious Courses fully represented And 't is not less than a Calumny and manifest Untruth to insinunte That any are in danger of Perishing for lack of Knowledge The greatest Mischief is from your Evil Arts of seducing and drawing the People from those places where these things are clearly set before them And the Atheism Debauchery and other Evils you complaiâ— of are evidently occasion'd by your Separation for when Men discover the Fraud and Falshood of your vain Pretences they begin to suspect the Truth of Religion it self and are thence led to throw off all Besides if you would Preach where there is most need you should repair to those Places where the Gospel is not yet planted and scatter your Light in some of the dark Corners of the Earth But instead of that you are for Exercising your Talent not where is the greatest need of Instruction but where you may reap the greatest benefit by Division But you add That the People have as true a Right to their Souls as we have to our Tithes and an Atheistical Popish Prince or Patron can no more impose a Minister upon them than he can chuse Wives Diet Physick and force them to take them And In another Letter you say That for above a Thousand Years after Christ he was to be taken for no Bishop that was chosen by the Magistrate without the Clergy's Election and the Peoples choice and consent Now to set you right in this Matter 'T is granted That Bishops formerly were and still are Elected by the Clergy at which in ancient Times some of the People were present to give their Testimony concerning their Lives and Conversation Which Practice was grounded on that of the Apostles 1 Tim. 3.2 7. A Bishop must be Blameless and of good Report But in process of Time the People from the bare giving testimony put in their Claim to their Consent in the Election And this begat those Disturbances Factions and Troubles in the Church that occasion'd the setling this Matter by Laws and Canons The Nomination of Bishops being setled in the Emperors and the Donation of Churches in such as erected or endow'd them by which means Peace was restor'd to the Church and that liberal Provision made for it which to this Day it in some measure Enjoys Now Mr. Baxter and his Followers to gratifie the People and disturb the Church would fain renew this Quarrel and revive those popular Pretences to choosing their Ministers which occasion'd so many and great Disturbances Of this kind is your arguing from Men's choosing their Wives Diet c. in which they have a natural Right for their own private Peace and Comfort to their choosing of Bishops and Doctors in which the publick Peace and Welfare of the Church are so much concern'd Between which as there is a great Difference so to argue from one to the other is a manifest Inconsequence But I must not forget a famous Argument of yours for Preaching without or against Laws and that is taken from a certain Church-relation which you say there was between Pastor and People which the Barthelomew Act was not able to dissolve Where Sir do you
preceptive Part of Laws and having an Eye only or chiefly to the coercive Part by which means if you are not at any time subject 't is merely for Wrath and not for Conscience sake Again 3dly This hath led you into a farther Mistake and made you take the suspending the Penalties for the Abrogation of the Laws for you imagine That the Act of Uniformity and all the Laws against Conventicles to have lost their Force from your being exempted from the Penalties of them Which shews That you place the Obligation of Laws not in the Matter or Things enjoined by them but wholly and solely in the Penalties annex'd to them so that when these are taken off the other of course are gone with them Yea 4thly You have a wilder Conceit than all this for you imagine That the removing the Penalties not only removes the Obligation of Laws but establishes the things forbidden by them For you take Conventicles to be allow'd and establish'd by that Law which merely exempts you from being punished for them which shews your deep reach in the Knowledge of the Laws or rather your gross Prevarications in the Observance of them In your Letter of July 11th you tell me That your Places of Meeting are as lawfully allowed as our Temples now our Temples being establish'd by Law yours it seems must have the same Authority And in your Letter of June 30th you say 't is to arraign the Government to affirm otherwise 'T is to be fear'd Sir That your Confidence in time will mount you so high as to reckon it a Crime to go to Church and to shut up all Religion and Virtue within the Walls of a Conventicle But let us hear what you have to say for these things and 1st you tell me That this Law amounts to more than a Suspension of the Penalty For it allows your Congregations guards them from Disturbance and exempts the Ministers from serving in any secular Office which is a sort of Reward Sir the Allowance mentioned in that Act implies no Approbation of your Congregations much less any Establishment of them but merely a winking at them for some temporal Reasons To keep any from disturbing them amounts to no more than a bare Permission or Toleration And for exempting you from secular Offices 't is a privilege granted to all in holy Orders of which you make a very bad use to think it a Reward for your making and continuing Divisions But you go on to tell me That if it were a bare Suspension of the Penalty yet that were enough to render them void of any Obligation on your Consciences to Obedience because they are merely Penal Laws Sir if you account all Laws that have a Penalty annex'd to the Breach of them to be Penal Laws you may then reckon the Ecclesiastical Laws and indeed all other Laws in that Number there being scarce any to be found without it But to reckon them merely Penal upon that account is a great Mistake to rectifie which you must know That there are some Laws express'd in Disjunctive Terms requiring to do this or that as in the Case of bearing such an Office or paying such a Fine Here the Law is purely Penal and paying the Fine answers the end of it being left in the Power of the Subject to chuse either but there are other Laws that directly and positively require something to be done or not done with a Penalty added to the Violation of it and here 't is not the suffering the Punishment but observing the thing that satisfies the Law Of this kind are the Laws that establish Conformity where he that does not what is commanded is a Transgressor of the Law and justly suffers for the Breach of it But you prove these to be merely Penal Laws because they require things that are no way apt to promote the common Good and till we prove them otherwise you will never be sensible of their pretended Obligation Sir Are Unity Order and Decency in the publick Worship which are the subject of these Laws things no way apt to promote the common Good Do you not read many express Precepts and Exhortations to them for the Benefit and Edisication of the Church Certainly if you have any Sense of Duty to the Laws of God or Man these things will carry more than a pretended Obligation But you have one thing more to say in your Letter of June 28th and that is That the Law does not only call your Liberty an Allowance but also that 't is for the Ease of Conscience Now the Suspension of the Penalty is only say you for the Ease of the Back and the Purse but 't is the taking off the Obligation that is for the Ease of Conscience Sir All the Ease granted or intended by that Act relates only to the Persons and Purses of Dissenters which are thereby exempted from the Temporal Fines and Penalties annex'd to the Breach of some Laws which is all that the Civil Magistrate can do but may not be extended to the taking off the Guilt or Obligation to Eternal Punishments which none but God the sole Law-giver and Judge of Conscience hath Power to remove Now Schism which is a Breach of the Peace and Unity of the Church being forbidden by the Law of God cannot have its Guilt or Obligation to eternal Punishment taken off by suspending the Temporal Penalties much less can it become lawful or made harmless by humane Laws I hope you do not think that Impunity can void the Obligation of Divine Laws or that a thing ceases to be a Sin because it ceaseth to be punish'd by the Civil Magistrate for then Theft Adultery and Murder would be no Crimes if the Punishment of them were at any time forborn and suspended And if Sentence against an evil Work be not executed presently the Hearts of the Children of Men might be safely set in them to do Evil Eccles viii 11. But how come they to plead for Toleration now who not long since thought and stil'd it intolerable Is that which was then the Mother of Confusion the Nurse of Schism Jus. Div. Reg. Eccl. and the Step-mother of Edification as they were wont to call it become of a sudden the Parent of all true Religion and Vertue No certainly the Matter is That 't was other Mens Case then and 't is their own now and that makes a mighty Alteration Are you not asham'd of such gross Partiality which is enough to make a Forehead of Brass to blush I shall conclude this Letter with the Words of your beloved John Calvin who tells us That in a true Church Instit L. 4. cap. 1. Sect. 10. where the Word of God is truly preach'd and the Sacraments duly administred none may presume to despise the Authority or resist the Admonitions or refuse the Counsels or slight the Corrections of it much less to withdraw from it and break its Unity and go unpunished Adding That God so highly
esteems the Communion of the Church that he accounts him a Renegade or Deserter of Religion who wilfully abstains and alienates himself from the Fellowship of it By which you plainly see the Sense of the Father and Founder of your Sect in this Matter I am SIR Yours M. H. LETTER XI SIR HAving in the former Letters asserted the reasonableness of injoyning Forms of Prayerupon all Persons and Occasions for Publick Worship And likewise shew'd the Vanity of all your Pleas and Pretences to the contrary I proceed now to consider what you have to say against the Antiquity of Forms to see how we may adjust Matters there And here I find you are very cautious of granting any thing for fear of giving Countenance to Liturgies and disparaging the great Diana of Extempore-Prayer For you will scarce allow That our Blessed Saviour intended his Prayer for a Form or that it hath been us'd as such in the Christian Church lest other Forms should gain credit and get ground by such a Concession Thereby verifying the Observation of our late Glorious Martyr King Charles the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ch. 16. concerning the Lord's Prayer That its great Guilt is to be the Warrant and original Pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church For Here you say we are wont to lay the first Stone in the whole Fabrick of Conformity And where can we better lay it than on the Words of him who is both the Foundation and chief corner Stone in the whole Fabrick of the Christian Church And yet we derive the Original of Forms much higher even from the very Beginning for the Learned Fagius makes it as ancient as the Times of Enoch Gen. 4. Ult. when Men began publickly to call upon the Name of the Lord. And 't is abundantly prov'd by the Holy Scripture and the Jewish Writers Gen. 4.26 That Forms of Prayer and Praises were us'd all along in the Jewish Church from whence our Blessed Saviour deriv'd his Yea many Learned Men have observ'd That our Saviour was so far from affecting Novelties and Variations that he took every Sentence of his Prayer out of the Jewish Forms then in use Vol. 2. p. 158. Idem on Matth. 6.9 as hath been fully prov'd by Dr. Lightfoot and other Learned Men. For when Christ's Disciples ask'd him to give them a Form of Prayer that they might be known to be his Disciples as the Jewish Doctors were wont to do to theirs He gave them no New Prayer but the same he had given them a Year and half before in his Sermon on the Mount partly as one hath well observ'd because there was no need of any other and partly because a better could not be given And yet you tell me That we build more upon this Prayer than 't will be ever able to bear How so We build the lawfulness and expediency of using this and other Forms Compos'd by it and I hope 't will well enough bear that and that so much at least may be allow'd to Christ's Practice and Commands as to be able to warrant these things No say you 't was design'd only for a Directory to frame other Prayers by and not a Form of Prayer to be us'd in the same Words But was it design'd think you only for a Directory for Extempore-Prayer or rather was it not a Direction to frame other publick Forms by If you search into Antiquity you will find no mention at all of the former whereas all Christian Churches have thro' every Age made use of it for the latter Hence a very Learned Author hath told us That all Authentick Liturgies and ours in particular are grounded upon and drawn up by the Lord's Prayer All the Collects for Grace being grounded on the three first Petitions the Prayers for all Earthly Blessings are grounded upon the request for our daily Bread the Confessions and Litanies for Pardon and Deliverance from Sin and all other kinds of Evils upon the three last Petitions and the Thanksgivings Hymns and Praises upon the Doxology And here tho' in honour to our Master we use this Prayer as a Form in the same Words and likewise make it the Pattern and Platform of all our other Prayers and parts of Devotion Yet you ask me as wise Question sc Whether I think my self oblig'd to use the words of the Lord's Prayer and no other No Sir I think my self oblig'd to use the Lord's Prayer in Obedience to the Command of my Saviour and other Prayers Compos'd and Establish'd according to that excellent Platform in Obedience to the Commands of my Superiors But how say you Can we use the Lord's Prayer in the same words and make it an invariable part of our Devotions when the same words are not us'd in both the Evangelists that record it For there is a variation of the Words in the 4th and 5th Petitions in the 4th St. Matthew hath it Give us this Day our daily Bread St. Luke Give us Day by Day our daily Bread in the 5th the one hath Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors the other Forgive us our Sins for we also forgive them that are indebted unto us and what is more material say you in St. Luke the Doxology is wholly left out But Sir may not the difference of Copies and the length of Time easily occasion so small an alteration And are we not infinitly beholding to the Providence of God in handing it down to us thro' so many Ages with so little variation This is rather to be own'd with Thankfulness than to be made a Cavil against the use of it May not this Day which is spoken every Day in various Copies easily change into Day by Day Is there any material difference between Sins and Debts in respect of God which you grant import the same thing And is this a just Pretence for laying aside such a Divine and Perfect Model of Devotion And whereas the Doxology mention'd by the one is omitted by the other which may be ascrib'd either to the different Occasions or to the difference of Transcribers our Church seems wisely to have comply'd with both by using it sometimes with and sometimes without it But Why should you be so unwilling to grant the Lord's Prayer to be made use of as a Form in the same Words Sure there is some Mystery in this which is but an Objection of Yesterday and never till very lately call'd in question by any Why The plain design of it is by endeavouring to weaken the Lord's Prayer as a Form to shake the Authority of all other Forms and if you can find any different and varied Expressions there 't will give some Countenance to your other new and beloved Variations But 't will become you Sir to have better Thoughts and likewise to make better use of this Divine Form than to abuse and pervert it to such bad Ends Considering what high Presumption it is to lay aside this Prayer as
the meanest Capacities so that the youngest Persons can distinctly read them and he that occupieth the room of the unlearned may say Amen to them and if this may be done by young Children in our Prayers 't is more than can be done by Older and Wiser Men in yours But if so considerable a part of a Ministers Work say you be only to read a Liturgy that may be done as laudably Extempore as upon the longest Premeditation And why should you not like that which helps you to Read as well as to Pray Extempore The pains after a little use is much the same and the only difference is that the Mind is better edified by the one and the Fancy more gratified by the other But 't will be hard say you to convince Men that the Gift of Reading is more admirable in the Minister at Church than in their Children at Home This is the same with that profane Objection of some loose Persons who ask what need they go to Church when they can read the same or as good things at home But Sir are not the publick Offices of Religion to be prefer'd before the private Hath not our Saviour promis'd a greater Blessing to them that assemble and meet together in his House than those that abide at home in their own Heb. 10.25 And does not the Apostle give a strist Charge to Christians not to forsake the Assembling themselves together as the manner of some is Besides does not the Order Office and Authority deriv'd by Christ upon his Ministers give a greater Efficacy and Solemnity to the Prayers when delivered by them than when they are read by private Persons without such Authority Does it become you Sir to strike in with such Careless Loose and negligent Wretches and to urge the same Objections in defence of your Superstition as they are wont to do to Countenance their Profaneness Nothing I see comes amiss to you that may any way serve your Turn and you stick not to make use of any Enormity that will help to keep up the Dissenting Cause Of this kind is that Appeal to the People Ask say you many Parishes in England whether a most pious Liturgy is a competent supply for the want of an able pious Minister As if a pious Liturgy and a Pious Minister were things inconsistent And elsewhere you sooth the People by putting into their Mouths that Canting Language Oh! Don't think that to read to us those Words that our Children can read every Day at home c. is enough to cure such dark dead disaffected Souls as ours which are Words meerly contriv'd ad Captandum vulgum and plainly shew what Game you are playing upon them But to make good this Charge of Laziness against the Conforming Clergy you urge two or three things more which must be consider'd As first That the Gift of praying Extempore is a necessary Qualification for the Ministerial Function and should be the Test of Ordination Next that they who have this Gift are bound to Exercise it in their publick Ministrations notwithstanding any Command to the contrary Lastly The neglect of this Gift hath been the occasion of Loosness Laziness and other Immoralities With what little appearance of Reason or Truth these things are affirm'd must be shew'd in my next I am SIR Yours M. H. Aug. 30th 1697. LETTER XIV To J. M. SIR I Have been considering the heavy Charge of Loosness and Laziness which you put upon the use of Liturgies and have in some measure shewed the Falshood and Injustice of it However to make it good and to keep the Mind constantly employed you make the Gift of Praying Extempore a necessary Qualification of the Ministerial Function and will scarce allow any to be fit or capable of Holy Orders that want this Faculty or forbear the use of it For You tell me in your first Letter that you are perswaded That the Almighty hath in this Age a great multitude of Suppliants that can and do express Holy Desires understandingly orderly and aptly without any penn'd or prescribed Forms and that Ministers should be ordinarily able to do so And a Brother of yours lays it down That the Church should judge of the Ministers Gift of Prayer before she trust him with the publick Ministry Reason Account p. 13. So that all that have not this Talent of Variations or forbear to use it in publick Worship are but Usurpers of Holy Orders and Intruders into the Ministers Office Now had not this need to be well prov'd that reflects so grosly upon all setled Churches where never any such thing was ever made a Question or Qualification for Holy Orders And yet that same Author tells us That if all Ministers in the constant use of their daily Prayers cannot out-do the perfection and exactness of the best Compos'd Forms Idem p. 157. it is to the shame of the Church of God in England Now is it not a shame think you for Men to own or utter such wild and extravagant Speeches But what is the Proof that is offer'd for this bold Assertion 1 Tim. 3.14 Why nothing but that of St. Paul to Timothy Neglect not the Gift of God that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery In which yet there is not any of the least mention made of Prayer and much less of performing it by any such Gift Ver. 13 and 15. In the Verse before the Apostle wills him to give attendance to Reading Exhortation and Doctrin and in the Verse after to mediate on these things So that if you will needs have the Apostle there speak of Prayer it must be rather of reading Compos'd Premeditated Forms than pouring out New and Extempore Prayers The truth is the Gift there intended by the Apostle was the Ministerial Office or Function which was given to Timothy by the laying on of Hands and his willing him not to neglect it was an Exhortation to a faithful and diligent Discharge of the Duty of his Place But the Mischief is some Men are so vainly conceited of this Talent that where ever they find the word Gift mention'd in the Scripture they will needs understand it of this Gift of Prayer Hence some think they have found it in that Advice of St. Paul Rom. 12.6 7. Having Gifts differing according to the Grace of God given to us whether Prophecy let us Prophesy according to the proportion of Faith c. In which the Apostle hath no Reference at all to it for the Gifts he refers to are particularly reckon'd up in the following Verses where no such Gift of Prayer is either nam'd or implied or if it were could be meant only of that Supernatural Gift of Prayer by which the publick Offices were at that time perform'd Others imagine they have found it in those words of St. Peter 1 Pet. 4.10 As every one hath receiv'd the Gift even so Minister the
is it consistent say you to commend free Prayer in private and yet too affirm That upon the ceasing of Inspiration Godly Forms were appointed both for publick and private Devotion Very well Sir for in the publick Assemblies Forms are necessary that all People may know their Prayers and so Pray with the Understanding And likewise in private Families where many are to joyn Forms are expedient for the same reason and both these since the ceasing of Inspiration are best perform'd this way But in the more private and secret Devotions of the Closet free Prayer may be conveniently used because thereby every one may better descend to his own particular Wants and Failings than by any Form Compos'd by others who cannot be so well acquainted with these things as themselves So that these things rightly consider'd may very well consist together and each of them may have their proper time and place Thus Sir I have throughly consider'd all that is material in your Letters and have not willingly omitted any thing that either needs or deserves an Answer It remains that I consider what you add in the Close against the Account I gave of Bishop Wilkins and the Design of his Book which shall be done in the next In the meam time I am SIR Your Hearty Friend and Well-wisher M. H. Nov. 23d 1697. LETTER XXII SIR IN my Answer to what you alledg'd from Bishop Wilkins's Gift of Prayer I told you the Design of that Book by the Author 's own Confession was a mere Novelty and thence took Occasion to mind you of the Danger of New Inventions and Innovations in Religion Now to this You reply This is very important Doctrin Which would have kept Christianity out of the World and the Pope with all his detestable Enormities in England Sir Is Reforming think you Innovating Did our pious and learned Reformers make a New Religion or only restore the Old They were wise enough to know and distinguish between these and therefore threw aside only the Hay and Stubble which some cunning Architects had built upon the Foundation of Christianity but still kept the Old Foundation and Fabrick of it And would this have kept Christianity out of the World Yea is not this the best way to keep it in it which else would be buried and lost in Rubbish and Ruin Again Our wise Reformers cast out only the corrupt Additions and Innovations of Popery but retain'd all that was truly Ancient Primitive and Apostolical and is this the way to keep the Pope with all his detestable Enormities in England Would you have them lay aside the Gold and precious Stone together with the Hay and Stubble And having thus wisely rejected their gray-headed Novelties shall we receive Innovations of a latter Date under a Pretence of a farther Advance and Progress in Reformation This Sir is either a Cavil or a plain Mistake of the Nature and Rule of Reformation In the next Paragraph when I told you there was no Use or Need of this Artificial Gift all Christian Churches performing their publick Worship by set prescrib'd Forms To this you reply Is it not still a Wonder that this Learned Man should so far forget Antiquity and himself as to be at such Pains about an useless and needless Gift Sir That Learned Man did not so much forget Antiquity as consider the Times in which he wrote which was when a prevailing Faction had laid aside the Ancient and best Way of publick Prayer by prescribed Forms Nor was his Artificial Gift either useless or needless at that time when he took that Pains about it being perhaps the best Expedient that could be thought of to supply the Want of prescrib'd Forms and to keep up true Devotion amidst the Irreverence and great Indecencies of those Times And as for what you say of losing his Memory he not only retain'd his own but assisted others by directing to the best way of Praying when Forms were gone But how does it appear say you That that great Man saw the bad Effects of this new Experiment in Divinity and look'd upon it as an Instrument of Division Sir I hope you will allow that great Light of the Church to see that which every body else sees and knows for is there any thing more visible than that this is that Idol and Support of all our Sectaries Is not a Liturgy the great stumbling Block that keeps many weak seduced People from the Church And free Prayer the Bait that allures them to the Conventicle And are not all our Divsions founded upon and upheld by this Artificial Gift and Practice But where and when say you did he complain of or retract this Book Sir If there were no other way he effectually did it by his own Practice which is a far better way of doing it than any Words or Writings For Actions speak louder than Words Men may and often do speak one thing and think another and their Practices are a plain Confutation of their Principles but Actions seldom lye and the Course of Mens Lives are the best and truest Indication of their Minds Now did not this great Man upon the Restauration of the Church plainly abandon this Art which shew'd his Sense of the Imperfection of it and betook himself to the Use of the publick Liturgy which shew'd that his Judgment carried him to that as much better This you cannot deny without disparaging the Memory of that great Man nor grant without disparaging this Artificial Gift which is a Strait I must leave you to get out of as well as you can But the Design of this worthy Man say you was not merely to help the Memory but to excite the Affections improve the Judgment and promote the Consolation and Edification of Christians And there is no doubt to be made of this for his helping the Memory by mental Forms when Book-Forms were remov'd was chiefly to promote those ends viz. to assist them to pray heartily and affectionately with Judgment and to the Edification of themselves and others And to this end advis'd them against long and varied Prayers to prevent Tautologies Impertinences and all unseemly Expressions in this Exercise Moreover he would not have them tie themselves precisely to one particular Form of Words tho' of their own composing so as to deny themselves any Liberty of using another or adding to that but to furnish themselves with Matter and Words for various Emergencies so as to be able to add or alter as Occasion should require And could the Wisdom of Man direct to a better Method for Piety and Devotion in those bad times But 't is sometimes say you not so much the Evidence of Truth as the Revolutions of Times that alter Mens Practice c. Take heed Sir for this if applied to this great Man as here without great Impertinence it must be will disparage his Memory to purpose by making him a Time-server and one that steer'd his Course as the Temptations of prosperous and adverse Times led him Which is enough to destroy the Credit both of the Author and the Book and put all Men out of Conceit with his variable Gift What you say and quote touching his Moderation is consider'd in another Letter to which I refer you To what I added in the Close that we may better estimate Mens Opinions by the Practice of their latter and wiser Age than the Rawness of younger Years You reply That some who have been sound and hopeful in their Youth have extreamly degenerated in their riper Years and from a great Zeal to the Church and Liturgy have fallen into a great Luke-warmness oâ— Apostacy from both But Sir Is there any Rule without an Exception May it not be reasonably hop'd and suppos'd that the Generality of Men should grow wiser and better as they grow older And that the Gravity and Experience of Age should correct the Rashness and Vanity of their Youth Tho' it must be granted That too many either by Weakness of Judgment or Strength of Prejudice or Power of bad Habits and Customs or Byass of Interest or other corrupt Inclinations and Designs may be found to do otherwise But I hope you will not here again disparage the Memory of this great Man by making him one of this Number For a Close of all I must upon an Impartial Review of the whole leave it to the Judgment of the Candid Reader and your own serious Consideration how much you might grow wiser and better by following the Example of this great Man which was and still is the hearty Wish and Advice of SIR Your Cordial Friend and Well-Wisher M. H. FINIS