be with me in Paradise Luke 23.42 43. And why should any person fear having good designs and hearty intentions to amend his life in addressing himself to such a God whose compassions are infinite When Mary Magdalene her self was admitted to his favour out of whom went seven Devils and to whom also much was forgiven Nay let Gods promise however become our encouragement by no means for a continuance in our sins for Grace will not abound then but to admonish us to repent and pray Especially since he has declared not only that he keeps mercy for thousands But more particularly that when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive Ezek. 18.27 Could any man be more vile than Saul who persecuted Christianity even to the death and was now struck blind with his Commission about him which was an infallible testimony of his guilt and an evidence beyond oral witness to bring all the Christians he could find to Jerusalem having first bound them that they might receive their sentence And yet through the infinite mercy of God our Saviour Ananias was sent miraculously to recover him when once he humbled himself and prayed Enquire for Saul sayes our Lord in a Vision for behold he prayeth Acts. 9.11 Certainly therefore none is so vile but if he has so real a resolution of amendment that want of time only in this mortal life can hinder it from appearing in sincere action he may address himself to Almighty God and shall find grace to assist him in time of need CHAP. VIII THe last enquiry which I proposed to be made in relation to this great duty of prayer is to consider whether it is necessary or no. And this would need no discourse at all would men be contented with the determinations of the Gospel and not mix Christianity with Philosophical disputes and turn all publick places of meeting into Schools of controversie where every man determines out of the Chair that was never in it Christian Religion would be much more easie than it is if men would look upon it as matter of fact a thing that was once done and delivered by the great Messiah who was authorized and came down from Heaven to proclaim Gods Covenant of Grace to the world sealed by the blood of the Mediator and all conveyed down to us in the way which is now recommended and practised in such Churches as own the Scriptures to be their Rule of faith and manners and impose nothing in the Circumstances and Ceremonies that attend Religion but what is decent in order and for edification and no where prohibited in the Word of God no nor yet the contrary enjoyned and commanded and therefore such cannot be sinful impositions unless men pretending to Christianity can find a transgression where there is no Law But however because it has been a fashion to say nothing of design to render easie things by some mens perplexing them for their own advantage difficult and hard That I may not seem willing to avoid trouble and because no other more necessary labour of a Minister is considered than what is made publick by preaching or writing I am resolved at this time being in a complying humour neither to balk the questions of Knaves nor the scruples of Fools The strong foundation upon which this enquiry is built is upon the notion of Gods Decrees and in pursuance of these his Providence over the world and therefore what necessity is there of prayer since it cannot alter Gods Decrees and in consequence of it the actions of his Providence But is it not strange that some men should raise doubts concerning that which nature it self has seem'd to dictate and is one of the principles of mankind What if we meet with some few Sceptical Disputants who love to hear themselves talk and because their spirits are determined to their tongues and too well love their lodging there having left few in their brains to direct and guide them are mightily pleased with their volubility of language and the venting their passions without any dictates from the conclusions of their retired minds but make their affections Clowns to their understandings whilst they pass by without any ceremony or consideration Yet I am resolved to prove prayer to be necessary in spight of all Atheists and Fanaticks if they will attend to reason or but consult their own systems He that denyes the Being of a God let him shew the reason of the common and periodical revolutions of things or how he himself came into the world and the original of those powers by which he manages such an argument And if he cannot deny that God is the whole world will hiss at him if he will not grant that he ought to be invoked and prayed to And as for those who allow prayer in the practice but yet destroy the reason of it by their principles and grow distracted by their belief in God losing his Attributes whilst they retain his Name I must principally discourse with such men under this enquiry And that I may obtain leave with others in the world that make some figure among mankind to beat the bush before any thing is started give me leave to acquaint you that 't is a common division of that worship which we owe to God into a Moral and Ceremonial part Moral is that by which we pay our duty to him according to his Moral Precepts and Commands implanted in our natures or otherwise sufficiently revealed submitting to his will in his daily providence Ceremonial is a due observance of those Rites and circumstances that justly tend to the promotion of the Moral parts of worship Now though this latter be the controversie of our Countrey and those times in which we live though debates and objections concerning this are the sparks that set whole houses on fire lay Cities waste and make their Inhabitants prey upon each other and like thorns crackle under the Pots of some who would be accounted little less than Prophets when having laid they foretell their own designs and by lucky hits bring them to pass Yet since the first is not without its difficulties suitable to the variation of the fancies judgements or interest of men who according to their pleasure or the admiration of others make things either hard or soft difficult or easie when it is their will to obscure or explain them Before I proceed any farther on the particular subject under consideration it may not be amiss to be instructed in its preparatives and general ingredients as it is a part of Moral Worship in which is included that which is Natural To compleat which there must 1. Be a serious consideration of the works of God which sufficiently declare his Being to the world 2. A right judgement upon and collection from them 3. A rational and suitable affection of mind proportionable to our reasonable inferences and deductions
Secrets of Princes and administer occasion to disturb the Order and Government of the World Which they indeed ought to introduce who undertake to be so particular and nice in confessing the sins of other men or praying for the things individuals stand in need of But to proceed By our absolutions the true penitent is only incouraged and that authority which our Saviour left with his last Commission to the Ministers of his Gospel is kept up and maintained in pursuance of what Christ said to his Apostles after his Resurrection when the state of his humiliation ceased and he was ready to ascend with triumph to his Father Joh. 20.23 Whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained Furthermore we are directed by the Order of our Church to say our prayers day by day that so we may in the sence of the Apostle pray without ceasing and continue instant in prayer and by vertue of our adoption cry Abba Father And this because the prescription of our blessed Lord himself gives us both a pattern and direction for when he teaches us to pray for bread which is the staff and support of our lives day by day As to the object of our prayers we make our Supplications to God alone through the Merits and mediation of Jesus Christ and admit no creature to partake in the honour due to either The matter of our publick prayers is such as includes our general wants we always beg the pardon of sin to be delivered from temptations and evils we petition also for Grace to assist us it being the influence of the Spirit of God And in particular we ask those Theological virtues of Faith Hope and Charity without which we cannot be saved We pray more especially as the Ancients did even when they were persecuted for Kings and all that are in authority that under them we may lead godly and quiet lives Nay we petition for men of all sorts and in all circumstances that none may be shut out from the benefit of our prayers and we beg all things that may be needful for our bodies and our souls We pray for happy seasons of the year for prevention of and deliverance from all Plagues that may hurt the body and all evils that may assault the soul We pray against all the bad accidents and misfortunes of our lives and that we may escape violence and sudden death Because notwithstanding the notions some have of Predestination death may be too surprizing to the best and if not prevented by the Providence of God may advance towards and seize us too before we are prepared to receive it and therefore we further petition Heaven that we may be fitted for our last encounter and that we may submit with Christian comfort and courage to and have a safe deliverance at the day of Judgment We pray not indeed for the Souls of men after their departure out of this lower world Because we believe according to the Scriptures that as the tree falls so it lies and as death finds us so will Judgment too Nor do we know and how can we unless it were revealed of any middle place where the souls of men may suffer to their improvement and be purged by any material fire If we could suppose it to operate upon an immaterial being Yet we pray as far for men departed this life as the Primitive Christians ever did and the form of our blessed Lord teaches us in that Petition Thy Kingdom come viz. That in order to the coming of the Kingdom of Glory God would bring the just that are departed this life to an happy and a blessed Resurrection that so Christs Church which is Militant on Earth may finally become Triumphant in the Heavens And we always give thanks for the examples and triumphs of those who have died in the true faith of Christ that we may rejoice with them whose joy is now full according to their capacity and shall at the great day be much more enlarged Our Liturgy is so excellently framed that as there is no sort of men but what we have some petitions for So there is no condition we can be cast into but the whole community who join in our Service share with us in sympathy and affection because they must remember us in our common Church prayers And of this the Litany is so full and expressive that particular Collects seem to be redundant when this is used yet we have even these too very suitable to the state of any that would desire that their grievances may be expressed to Almighty God by him who offers up the prayers of the Congregation As far as modesty and cleanness of language is able to present them though not in those terms in which they were formerly pitch'd up with a fork to load a Pulpit and the Ministers hearty wishes are assisted by the devout affections and consent of the people In a word our Church directs and her true obedient Sons practise what the Apostle advises the Philippians to do Chap. 4. ver 6. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God And as they whom the Apostles first converted to the Christian faith we continue stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer Our Creeds in which we make the publick profession of our faith contain all Articles but yet no more than the purest Christian Churches of the world have in all Ages of their Religion declared They are neither stuffed with the additions of the Council of Trent nor have we abated by the omissions of ancient Hereticks or any that bear a newer date nor do we receive any point of faith but what is plainly evident in the Scriptures And for these we own neither spurious nor generally doubted Books Our fellowship or society is upheld as all others must be by those whose business it is to govern and those whose duty it is to obey And in the quality of our Rulers we have the advantage of some other Churches that are yet Protestant in that we are governed by Bishops for whose order in the Christian Church notwithstanding any personal failures to which all that is called man is subject or the malicious imputations of any wicked and unreasonable men we have the same evidence if this word too is not in disgrace and consent among the Antients for fifteen hundred years as we have for the Baptism of Infants for the abolishing of the day of the Jewish Sabbath and instead of it for the establishment of the observation of the Lords Day And as far as I can yet learn all the three seem to stand upon the same foundation and if they fall they must be ruined together Our Sacraments are no more than what our blessed Saviour instituted and commanded also to be used in his Church that we might have some visible signs which by vertue of his blessing might
A DISCOURSE OF PRAYER WHEREIN This great Duty is stated so as to oppose some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks As they are contrary to the Publick Forms of the Church of England established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by ACTS of PARLIAMENT By THOMAS PITTIS D. D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Wherefore that way and profession in Religion which gives the best directions for it viz. Prayer with the most effectual motives to it and most aboundeth in its observance hath therein the advantage of all others Dr. Owen in his Preface to his late Discourse of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer c. London Printed by B. W. for Edw. Vize next Shop but one to Popes-head-Alley over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1683. To my loving Parishioners of the Parish of S. Botolph without Bishopsgate And also to the Inhabitants of the Parish of Christ-Church together with those of S. Leonard Foster-Lane in London by the late Act of Parliament united my very kind constant and Gentile Benefactors Gentlemen THough I have a Patron who is your Bishop and mine too to whom I acknowledge the utmost of what I can perform to be due next God and the King Yet this Discourse consisting of that which has been lately Preached to you in the same order in which for fashion sake it is here published in a small Treatise I hope I may more effectually serve you at this time by presenting those things to your perusal which the most of you have with kindness heard from the Pulpit By our Honourable and Right Reverend Bishops Patronage and your favour I have had the credit and advantage too of Preaching on the Lords daies at both ends of your City And what influence by Gods blessing Christian and Loyal Discourses have had upon many of you your publick actions have eminently discovered And therefore without any farther complement I adventure to dedicate this Discourse to you who am Gentlemen Your most humble Servant Tho. Pittis There are some faults which have escap'd amendment either by my own or others oversight The Principal of which the Reader may correct in this following Order PAge 1. line 16. for one read own p. 12. l. 28. for altogether r. all together p. 34. l. ult for of r. for p. 36. l. 20. place a comma at here p. 52. l. 19. for might r. miâ—d p. 65. l. 6. r. who sustains c. p. 71. place the comma at Religion or it alters the sense p. 114. l. 8. for matter r. manner p. 115. l. 10. for form r. from p. 119. place things l. 20. after those l. 19. p. 157. l. 22. r. And when c. l. ult for Disciple r. Disciples p. 183. for their r. her p. 211. for Sess 22. r. Sess 6. p. 243. l. 10 11. r. at the close of several of his Controversies p. 243. at Essence blot out comma p. 252. l. 21. for nature r. natures p. 253. l. 12. for Omnipotent r. glorious p. 280. l. 16. blot out not p. 285. l. 15 for repeated r. repealed p. 315. l. 15. for nough r. enough p. 356. l. 12. for io r. to p. 358. l. 22. for Spirts r. Spirits The Preface Introduction and Method of this Discourse THE nature and composition of mankind like that Voice which was heard in the Temple at Jerusalem being a warning to its Officers and a Prognostick of its ruine cryes aloud that we must depart hence and since our abode in this World is a state of Pilgrimage and our life here is in order to another since we are a sufficient demonstration to our selves that we were not so wonderfully made to have our beings expire with our breath but the frame and actions of the reasonable soul loudly proclaim its one immortality and that death proves a change only not annihilation 'T is rational for men to employ their thoughts how to be secured of an happy state when they shall be remov'd from their station here to abandon this World which endures but for a moment and to make provision for a future which shall last as long as Eternity can measure it Now since there is nothing more likely to interest us in the happiness of the Regions above than obedience to him who has them in his disposal it is suitable to the reason and inference of men to put themselves into his service and be guided by the declarations of his will since he has exhibited his Laws to the World This puts us upon the exercise of vertue and brings us under the conduct of his government And because miserably dangerous is a miscarriage in this affair admitting no reverse after death nor can the thread of our lives be new spun when our common fate has snapp'd it asunder our fear of error cautions us to be wary that we may chuse well and neither incline to the temptations of the flesh nor be led aside by the allurements of the World or the secret insinuations of evil Spirits which like roaring Lions walk up and down seeking whom they may devour from hence we see the necessity of diligence as well to understand the Laws of our Maker as to avoid their violation which though sometimes it grows peccant by being over-curious when the passion of fear conquers reason and inclines men to superstition yet more mistakes are frequently committed when we relax our diligence from misapprehensions of the revelation of Gods will and on a sudden grow confident and presume inferring from our uncertain notions of Gods decrees that duty and devotion are not absolutely necessary for the obtainment of the end of our hope the salvation of our souls since Gods decrees are unalterable and the predestinate shall be saved let them do what they will and the reprobates shall be damned let them do what they can I shall not now endeavour to shew how inconsistent such positions are with the nature of God the liberty of men or the good government of the community But this will appear most reasonable that the Being of a God once granted and that he contains all possible perfection his worship and adoration will be a natural inference and if he be our Maker and Benefactor there is reason that we should petition and give him thanks For not to be grateful is inhumane and not to begg his favour on whom we depend is foolish and irrational nay worse than so for the Beasts themselves will condemn this whose actions are to us discourse and their sence of obligation arguments to convince us The devouring Lion is obsequious to his keeper the dull Ox knoweth his owner and the sluggish Ass that untractable creature his Masters crib It would be strange then if reasonable men should not both know their obligations and consider their duty Goodness is usually so attractive to the will especially that which is diffusive in courtesies that from bad natures it frequently commands both acknowledgement and returns Where this
Reader that there is one part of their worship in the Eucharist which is the adoration of the Host that Coster the Jesuit in Euchrid controv Cap. 8. Sect. 10. says cannot escape this charge upon it if the foundation of it be not true For says he if the true substantial body of Christ be not in that Sacrament but what we receive is in substance only bread and wine Christ dealt unworthily with his Church who by occasion of his own words This is my Body left it for 1500 Years together in so great an error and such Idolatry as was never seen or heard of in the world And moreover he delivers in the proof of this last assertion That their error was much more tolerable who worshipped a Gold or Silver Statue or any Image of other matter for God as the Gentiles in time pass'd worshipped theirs or such as worship a piece of red Cloth lifted up on the top of a Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or living creatures as anciently the Egyptians did than the error of those who worship a bit of bread which hitherto says he but very falsely the Christians have done supposing Transubstantiation not true So that according to their own confession if the sense of this Doctor renders his own opinion probable If our Saviours substantial and corporeal flesh and blood be not in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper But Christs words are to be understood Figuratively according to the expressions used before in the celebration of the Passover in which Protestants have an apparent advantage in their proofs and arguments then any man may safely say that the Papists are Idolaters when they worship a wafer instead of God Nay the worst sort of Idolaters in the world as the Jesuit says in the forementioned place And this deserves not in reason any severe censure among themselves because upon their Doctrine of probabilities the opinion of any one allowed Doctor among them may be safely followed without peril of damnation And upon the same principle it may be very lawful to shift opinions when these Doctors contradict one another This I am sure when urged home by one that has more skill in Controversie than I will take off that by which they endeavour to charge those Protestants with great uncharitableness who draw this impeachment high against them when they accuse them of Idolatry in their adoration of the Host And invalidate the best answer they have upon the supposition that Transubstantiation is false viz. That 't is true to them because they believe it and therefore although adoration of the Host would be Idolatry in another of a contrary persuasion yet they cannot be guilty of such a crime Because they worship not the Bread which they believe upon the words of consecration to be absent but the Divinity of Christ which they suppose to be present together with his body and his soul And If it be so then after they have conjured him into the accidents of bread and wine so that these hide him from any discovery by the bodily senses of mankind they seem first to make him present then adore what they have so made and at last eat up and devour him unless they can again slip him away betwixt their fingers and their teeth together Yet if Transubstantiation which is the foundation of all this be false then we may still charge the Papists with Idolatry according to the probable opinion of the Jesuit But what have we dull Protestants to do with this or their Doctrine of probabilities by which they only innocently design to serve their own turns To enter upon such points too far will overdo my present purpose And I may in the winding up of the bottom be accused for charging the Romish Church with the Doctrines and conclusions of particular men and causing all the excellent orders among them to speak by the mouths of the Jesuits which some Papists for designs best known to themselves will readily and not without cause considering all things confess to be the most pernicious Order or rather Sect that ever was established in the Roman Church i. e. the worst in the Christian World Let us leave this then and come out from among them and meddle no longer with the nice affairs of particular Societies It will be sufficient for my present purpose if from my precedent Discourse of prayer I may justly and by due consequence infer that the Publick Service of the Church of Rome is such as is repugnant to Gods revealed Will that it may justly be branded with Superstition according to the proper signification of the word that it is such as the greater number of those who are commonly present at it cannot accompany with due and proper intentions of their minds that their prayers are such as God has no where promised to hear and their methods of address such as Christianity never prescribed nor were by any Church in the first times ever practised nay not by their own till they had debauched the best Religion in the World to advance themselves corrupted good Manners and caused the principles of the Gospel to truckle to their fancies and began to Sacrifice to their own net and made St. Peters Successors at Rome such cunning Fishermen as catched only such Fish as brought money in their mouths making merchandize of mens souls that they might gain a Temporal advantage by the traffick These are Heads sufficient for a Protestant to Discourse upon But I must omit such and many more if I dilate coherently to what I have confined my self And therefore I shall not now make discovery of that apparent Sacriledge in the Church of Rome depriving the people nay the Priests too unless they consecrate of half their Communion in the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper whilst they think a pretty invention of concomitancy will excuse their theft when our Saviour instituted and gave the signs of his body and blood distinct from each other that his real death might be the better signified since his blood was actually separated from his body Nor shall I write at this time concerning the villany of their Confessions and Absolutions which as they use them to base and bloody and Secular advantages are most intolerable nor of all the ridiculous indefensible and burdensom Ceremonies with which they usually so load their devotions that baffling all true Evangelical worship confound the intentions of mens minds turn the reasonable service of their bodies into Pageanty and Stage play make their prayers which they pretend to offer nothing but an external shew the labour of the lips and outside devotion turning their Priesthood into such a trade that all the preparation of Learning and Divinity can enter them but Novices into the Schools of Exercise and they had need serve another Apprentiship to teach them the postures and Giggombobs of action Though these and many other things as vain and bad are prescribed and commanded in their Books of Offices
nor can any man give a true assent to that whose truth he cannot discern nor has any overpowering reason to believe This our own experience upon reflection must fully convince us of Or if any that have immortal souls within them and are quite sunk into rottenness and clay so that they will not or cannot intend their minds to receive satisfaction within themselves yet if they have sense enough to be common Christians of the lowest form in the School of our Lord the authority of his Apostle must convince them and they must on divine revelation believe that praying in an unknown tongue must be nonsence and folly in him that thus offers to God he knows not what and consents to that of which he has no knowledge at all If I know not says S Paul the meaning of the voice I shall be to him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh a Barbarian unto me 1 Cor. 14.11 And verse the 16. When thou shalt bless with the spirit that is as before in an unknown tongue how shall he that possesseth the room of the unlearned say Amen i. e. give his assent at thy giving of thanks since he understandeth not what thou saiest To speak or write more in such a plain case would apparently disparage an Auditory and a Reader and a man might be accused of wasting time and of rendring our adversaries very considerable in the defence of such a point in the management of which they have little or nothing to say for themselves besides this That Latin Service being formerly their custom when it was commonly understood in the Western Empire they think it fitting and honourable to continue it still lest a change might make them lose the credit of Antiquity though the principal reason of uttering Divine Service in this language is gone and becomes an argument that points a quite contrary way and directs all Churches to their vulgar language since the Latin is so far from being the common tongue in which the multitude of men express their thoughts and come to the understanding each other even in those places in which by the Roman Church the publick Service is injoyn'd to be used that the common people do not understand it even in Italy it self But the Church of Rome has one reason for it above all that the great ones will let us know from themselves but yet they do not here in England stop our mouths so that blessed be God we can speak it for them though they had rather that we would still hold our tongues Yet the reason is this Because hiding under an unknown tongue the abomination and false opinions which they practise and uphold in their publick offices their people are kept in great ignorance and dark devotion nourishes them into a great zeal and blind obedience that the Priests may make impressions on them and they may receive and embrace those instrumental principles that pick their Pockets for the advantage of holy Church and empty their Purses into the Popes Coffers And this is the most weighty reason for their religion in those particulars in which it is departed from Primitive Christianity But yet methinks I have so much confidence in the rational natures of mankind that where they could understand they would examine and if they once arrived at that they would quickly reject every Article of the Church of Rome which they have added to the Apostles Creed and what the Reformed Protestant Church of England owns And I am fully perswaded that the generality of the English Nation who cannot if they have been any thing serious but be well acquainted with the necessary points delivered in the Scriptures would so loath and abhor the Roman Breviaries and Mass-Books were they faithfully translated into our common Language so that both parties might sign the Copy that the people would confute them themselves without the toil or pains of another But the Romanists had rather still lurk behind the Curtain deal with the credulous and lock up the Key of Knowledge by keeping the Scriptures from the searches of the people unless they are such particular parts as they think fit to afford them the perusal of This better serves their turn than to permit a bold and inquisitive multitude to view all that they may make discoveries and twattle to one another and so at last make enquiries into those Services of their Church which the Governours are willing should be accounted divine till the people should be able by due search to confute the Roman Prayers by the Scriptures and then in a little time more the Capitol it self must be delivered when they had no more Geese to defend it I see therefore in the Roman way the blind must lead the blind till both together fall into the ditch where I shall at present leave them as to this point of Latin Service till their Seers are able to pluck them out For when error is attended with an obstinate resolution to maintain it even against the testimony of an Apostle the persons thus possessed with it are only to be treated as things insensible not minding the authority by which Christian Religion is established And when people thus present petitions to Almighty God which they cannot so much as pretend to understand 't is plain that they offer the sacrifice of fools and their Priests sacrifice to their own net and 't is in vain to perswade in such a case where the people delight in their own slavery and the Priests love their covetousness too well to forsake the Trade in which they can so easily impose on those whom by such means they keep in ignorance and so make an outside godliness their gain Certain it is that the people under the Roman yoke can only draw nigh to God in their Publick Service with their lips at best when their hearts and minds being under an impossibility of accompanying them must of necessity be far from him and they lose also the blessed influence of all their Publick Prayers on themselves in raising their affections acting their graces mortifying their sins and prompting them to their duty all which prayers well composed uttered and understood must needs effect upon the minds of well inclined Devotionists And so I proceed to another Argument we have against the Publick Prayers of the Romanists That they pray to Creatures when they ought to pray to God alone That God only is to be the object of our prayers in divine worship I have already shewed in the Third Chapter of this Discourse And that the Romanists pray to Angels and Saints departed their Service is so full and frequent an evidence of it that they themselves will not deny it They endeavour therefore to justifie the thing by the bold assertions of their own Authors and without any plain authority but from the Heathens and themselves and without any solid and substantial argument Yet that I may give the Reader an hint or two that none unless
he has a brow of brass may say to those who understand not or else never look'd into their allowed Breviary or their common and established Mass-Book that we charge them with what they are not guilty of I must instance in a few particulars in which prayers are made to glorified creatures and to some inanimate things too in the publick Offices of the Roman Church since some of the professors of that Religion are so bold and apparently wicked that to serve a turn they will affirm 't is dark in the face of the Sun and light even in the midst of darkness and nothing almost according to their principles of equivocation and mental reservation if they take also the Doctrine of probable opinions in to their assistance can be propounded but they may either affirm or deny as it makes for the advantage of their Church Nay they are bound according to the determination of Bellarmin to say that Vertue is Vice or Vice Vertue if the Pope so concludes either But yet my present charge is so apparently true that all must own it to any that have knowledge of their publick Service whatever they may at any time reply to the ignorant that receive the charge upon the authority of others For in their Commune Apostolorum there is an Hymn consisting both of prayer and praise in which we find these expressions Vos saecli justi judices c. speaking to the Apostles they say O ye just Judges and Lights of the world we beseech you with the desires of our hearts to hear the prayers of your supplicants ye that shut the heavens with a word and unlock them again loose us we pray you from all our sins by your command you to whose authority is subject both the health and misery of all c. In their Office to the Blessed Virgin you have these expressions O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death And let the Virgin Mary together with her off-spring bestow her blessing upon us and the like I shall instance yet in one more although many know I might translate a multitude of the same nature into this Discourse and that shall be in the service relating to one who was the Founder of one of the most pernicious Sects that ever infested the Christian world in comparison to many of whom the Gnosticks were Saints the Goths and Vandals were of a Religious Order the Great Turk becomes a Christian and the wild Fanatick is temperate and mild I mean Ignatius Loyola who founded the first Society of the Jesuits to perplex and confound the Councils of Princes and carry on mischievous designs against us as well by those who have been at the top as those that remain at the bottom of the Ladder In the Service at the Celebration of his Festival there is this Prayer or Collect on the one and thirtieth day of July O God! who for the greater propagation of thy glory hast strengthened thy Church militant properly so indeed under the command of a Jesuit with a new aid by blessed Ignatius grant that we who strive or fight on earth by the imitation and help of him may deserve with him to be crowned in the heavens And if they all deserve the same lot may they together possess the same place for fear they should be as troublesome to us in the other world as they have been in this But I will no longer employ my self in translating their prayers Many instances of their petitions to Saints and Angels have been exposed to view in most Books that have been by Protestants written against them I heartily wish that those who use such prayers understood them better because they would then more easily see how poyson is wrap'd in gilded pills Why should I relate the Attributes which the Church of Rome gives to the Cross of Christ as great as to him who suffered on it and yet have no method to shift their blasphemy but by the same way in which they translate their prayers and praises too from the Cross to him who died upon it And though I love not to pursue a Lion to his den for fear that being weary he may be hungry too and take some opportunity to rend and devour Yet it would be a strange expression from a Protestants mouth that which must needs grate upon the ears of all the devout worshippers of God and such as believe that their prayers are heard only through the merits and intercession of Christ Sancta Crux or a pro nobis Holy Cross pray for us And Ave Crux spes unica Hail Cross our only hope would be words that to us would not only seem ridiculous but abominable and if at all considered to any that hope in the mercy of God through him who suffer'd and dyed upon the Cross But notwithstanding all these are things as common with the Papists as whining and another sort of nonsence are among some Separatists that pretend to set themselves at the greatest distance from them Nay any may see if they have skill and leisure to peruse it in an office of or relating to the Holy Cross Printed at Paris 1664. by publick authority such strange expressions as these are After it has begun with a Prayer to God to free men from their enemies by the Sign of the Cross which if we should make a thousand times upon our selves we should hardly be quit from those that are so devout to it we find afterwards these expressions O Crux venerabilis c. I know not how they may edifie in Latin but I am sure that they sound harsh in English and good or bad thus they run O venerable Cross who hast brought salvation to us miserable with what praises shall I extoll thee because thou hast prepared heavenly life for us And in the close of another Hymn the style tho' a new one is in these words O victory of the Cross and admirable sign make us to triumph in the Celestial Court or the Court of Heaven But this is an ungrateful task to me thus to transcribe the most abominable Popish Prayers and as unpleasant as it can be to Protestants to read it And therefore I shall not fill these Papers with those particular addresses which many of them make to individual Saints as they account them who are departed this life for particular things which they suppose to be in the power of them singly to bestow whilst they appropriate one faculty to one and a second to another whilst they constitute a first to be a Patron to their Horses another to their Sheep a third to their Hoggs and another to keep off some Disease from themselves or at least to cure it And so they make them Grooms or Farriers or Swiniards or Shepherds or Physicians or Mountebanks or what they please For I am weary of raking in such a dunghill in which there is neither Barley-corn nor Jewel
But notwithstanding all their pretensions to the Spirit of which I shall hint something before I end which advances their rudeness into perfect Blasphemy If praying extempore they are at any time methodical and faultless 't is owing to their good chance and fortune And they have an escape when they have taken no pains at all for it But when David was bartering for the threshing-floor of Araunah and for Oxen also for a burnt Sacrifice nay the very wood to kindle the fire all which he might have been presented with for nothing David refused so Royal a gift And his reason as himself expressed it was because he would not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord his God of that which should cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. But these bold men with whom to our sorrow we have to do confidently present to Almighty God that in which no pains were taken in the composure Only a tatling and talkative Service stuff'd with little besides gibberish and impertinency that others who consider what and to whom they offer it cannot without falshood and irreverence join with them in But the halt and the blind are their common Sacrifices and strong lungs the best Altar on which these oblations are made Yet all this they think to smother when they are kindled into passion and fury in the obscurity of those phrases and length of those sentences in which they pretend to offer their comon supplications unto God And they expect the joint consent of a Congregation to what they never heard of before Nor could they understand when it was uttered For their raptures so muffle up their notions and both are so mix'd with their petitions which they wrap in Clouds and obscure Metaphors that the meaner sort cannot understand them But sigh and groan they know not why And the more considering part that are not blind have just cause to suspect such Religion which the Patrons and promoters endeavour with so much care to secure from a more severe and strict examination All that I admire in it is how they can be dark at noon-day and mount out of sight on a sudden and extempore Unless whatever their pretensions are to quickness of invention they study such unusual expressions designedly to amuse but not to inform the judgements of men As Cotta in Tully speaks of Heraclitus de nat Deor. lib. 3. Quae diceret intelligi noluit That he would not have what he said to be understood But in prayer to God when 't is made vocal men are supposed to declare their wants and petition for relief And this especially when any Community joins in it ought to be managed with an honest plainness without any mysterious riddles or equivocal language or petitions wrap'd up in mourning Metaphors as if they were to be buried amongst the Dead or any other Coptical and Egyptian expressions that are difficult to decipher and much more to be understood For these are things that as well baffle the minds of the simple as too frequently vail the hypocrisie of him that makes the oblation Nay very often amuse those of better understanding so that they are not able with any judgment to say Amen at the close of all Nay it hazards also and too frequently destroys that faith which ought to be earnestly contended for and safety preserved pure and unspotted For it 's as easie and indeed attended with less difficulty to introduce a strange Creed by using this unbounded liberty in prayer as it is by an unstinted latitude in preaching and to insinuate into mens minds either old or new condemned Heresies by a frequent repetition of those things that tend to their promotion or establishment in our prayers to God When the souls of those that join in the devotions are very intent and open to receive what we say with greediness and desire Especially when men are busied in raising their affections to their utmost height There 't is not hard to introduce false Doctrine into the belief of others Which like a false story that by frequent relation comes at last to be received as true Not only by the hearers who are easily imposed on But he that tells it having so often related it forgetting that he once knew it to be false at last thinks it to be really true Nay in prayer where a false point in Religion is misted and wrap'd up in a petition 't is affected and swallowed with the petition And more easily digested than if it were declared in an Homily or Sermon Because in hearing Sermons men imploy their judgments more than their affections But in prayer the affections are usually more busie than their understandings And that it is very common with those extempore men that take upon them to conceive prayer in a Congregation to insinuate Doctrines in their petitions is so manifest to all observing persons who have been present at such meetings that a person of any judgment at all may certainly judge of the opinion of the gifted Brother that prayeth by his Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings to God And then where people are led by the authority or examples of those whom they embrace for their Ministers which in many things the common multitude must and in most points it is notorious in many of our Separatists what they use in their prayers and speeches unto God must needs obtain a greater reputation with them than what is only address'd to men Because they then think their Ministers to be most serious cautious and devout too This therefore was warily and exceedingly well provided against after the extraordinary operations of the Spirit ceased by the Council at Laodicea Can. 18. where the Fathers Assembled injoined their Churches to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Liturgy or form of prayer both Morning and Evening And in the fifty ninth Canon of the same Council it was Ordained that the vulgarly composed Psalms which were the labours of persons who had not sufficient understanding in these things or any Books that were not Canonical should not be sung or read in the Churches Where also for mens satisfaction against the Papists in this matter you may find the Titles or Names of those Books which the Council then received as Canonical And in the Milevitan Council Can. 12. it was Decreed that those Prayers and Offices which were approved by an Assembly or Council should only be used excluding others in all their publick Administrations Lest any thing should either through inconsideration or ignorance be uttered before the people that might contradict the common faith received and continued among them And if the Governours of Churches in those daies were so Prophetical and cautious in their Establishments for the present and transferring the most Holy Christian Religion from their own Age to the succeeding so as nothing might be conveyed to Posterity but what was Orthodox and of Primitive constitution And to obviate that extravagant itch of men which since we have found increasing into a
in the midst of the waters Especially over such Fish as carry mony in their mouths If they did not in plain terms endeavour to make parties in the Church that their own may at last appear to be the greatest by whatever under the pretext of Religion conveighs delight by that variety which pleases the generality of mankind Why should they not as well Preach extempore as pray so In their Sermons I am sure they were wont to use all the art and study that they could accommodating their Doctrines and expressions too that their pains might bear proportion to their Auditory and the fashion and example of those who were in greatest repute amongst them And I cannot divine what might be the cause of this different regard to prayer and Preaching unless they had more care in those speeches they directed unto men than they took about those which they presented unto God For they seem to me to have no greater promise of an assistance from Heaven in relation to the one than they have also with reference to the other Do they think that Text in the Eighth to the Romans proves effectually that the Holy Ghost assists them in their prayers because the Apostle has delivered that likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities because we know not what we should pray for as we ought c. If it be well weighed and considered with the Context it will only evidence our Saviours most earnest and wise Intercessions for us in Heaven by the holy Spirit which alwaies accompanies him The support of our minds under the greatest pressures we meet with in this world Or most that the Scripture being dictated by the Spirit has given us directions for the proper heads and â—â—â—â—er of our prayers and resolves still by some benign and secret influence which we are not able to describe to others to proportion our affections and elevate our minds to the importance of the concernments we pray for and the greatness of that Majesty to whom we petition And because if I were the greatest Critick in the world I should alwaies abhor the founding any necessary Doctrine upon the signification of a word in Scripture which words we know as in prophane Authors are frequently equivocal and restrain'd according to the compass of that matter in which they are Therefore I say nothing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no nor concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither But if men are resolved for ends that will not serve them at the day of Judgement to which they refer many things that may be ended here to make these words against their own will in contradiction to the reason and experience of all thinking men that are not either knavish or mad to express a promise of some extraordinary assistance from the Spirit now in our inventions of matter and words in prayer unto God They may as well rely if they are pleased with such waies of interpreting Scripture upon that promise of our Saviour made to the Apostles to enable them to preach and write the Doctrines of the Gospel John 16.13 Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth And because there were Divine inspirations at the first which were necessary if God would deliver a Law by the mouths or writings of any selected out of the race of men Our gifted Brethren may if they please take occasion from the 10th of St. Matthew vers 19th and 20th to attempt any thing without premeditation or study and then to be sure we should be hard enough for them Since our Saviour there informs his Disciples that they need take no thought what or how the should speak because it should be given them in that hour i. e. when they might have occasion And he uses an Argument to raise and to confirm their belief of it For it is not ye that speak saies he but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And yet I fancy that if our extempore men were in the same circumstances and put under those conditions which this Text supposes and were accused of something Capital before a Magistrate they would not only study all waies of clearing themselves to avoid the punishment what ever at last became of the guilt And this they would endeavour by all the means that a close consultation with their own thoughts could possibly suggest and not only with seriousness prepare an answer to any accusation of this nature But I believe too they would condescend to advise with the learned in the Law that they might if possibly avoid the Sentence of the Judge Nay in such cases whether they would fee bribe or make the greatest friends they could I leave to their own Consciences and experience that I may say nothing of making publick commotions to save themselves And as in business of this nature gifted men are inclined to think that such promises of assistance were only intended for a shorter time and not to reach this present age So though the Apostles Acts 2. Being fill'd with the Holy Ghost began to speak with divers languages as the Spirit gave them utterance they will submit their Spirits and condescend to the contrivance of heads of matter and modes of expression when they preach the Gospel though they are to speak in no other than their Mother Tongue Now why should this great care be had in their Sermons to the people when they usually have so slender a regard to what they utter in their prayers to God if there were no distinctions of times and seasons in relation to the promises and assistances of Gods Spirit For surely Preaching as well as praying is an ordinance to continue 'till the Elect are gathered and that will not be till the end of the world Unless they will affirm and give us too apparent an Argument to believe that the Spirit has so ordered matters that less pains and diligence are to be used when we address to God than when we speak only to the people And if any are so bold to talk thus I hate to refute such nonsence and blasphemy both together For it plainly appears that such men must be liable to the same rebuke which the chief Rulers of the Jews received from our Saviour recorded in the Gospel of St. John Chap. 12.43 Who though they believed on him did not confess him because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God And let their ears be never so much circumcised they render themselves opposite to the true circumcision whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.29 And how far such contrivances may comport with sincerity and be distant from that Hypocrisie which has so many woes attending it I shall leave to those who are concerned to adjust and content my self with that direction which the great Authour of our most excellent Religion has
delivered in relation to private devotions which holds good in publick too prohibiting all sinister and hypocritical designs in prayer to gain the praises and acclamations of men And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites are For they love to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the Streets that they may be seen of men Matth. 6.5 I shall not therefore value at all how I am recommended unto men if their approbation shall render those actions that gain it unacceptable and odious unto God He that is called to that Honourable although despised Office of a Minister in the true Church of Christ must neither fear the frowns of men nor the malice of Devils and no body can bestow greater slurs or indignities on our vocations or persons than our receiving the Sacred Character may forewarn us to expect We know it is an Employment unacceptable to the guilty to tell men of their faults redargue their errors and to put them to open rebuke and shame nay by chance sometimes to their very faces And in doing this we cannot but expect to bear some share in our Saviours sufferings Who though he was the best Preacher of the Gospel was both contemned whipt and Crucified Now the Disciple is not above his Master nor is the Servant above his Lord And 't is no more than he has forwarned us to expect if we are hated of all men for his names sake Nay were it not that the great God himself espouses our quarrels when truth remains unshaken on our side by his Providence making way for deliverence from our enemies that he that despiseth us despiseth Christ himself and he that despiseth him despiseth him also that sent him Luke 10.16 And that not only promises of temporal deliverances or at least supports under the pressures of our adversaries but an eternal reward is also granted to him that continues and perseveres unto the end Matth. 10.22 We should have been quite swallowed up by those strange children whose teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword And we should have as long as we are permitted to live work nough cut out for us not only to tire the most active and indefatigable minds among us but even to disturb our Spirits and break our hearts For there is nothing almost in the Christian Religion but what either the wit or malice of men has render'd doubtful And the perverse wranglings of one man with another have made that a Subject to dispute upon which was at first designed to unite the whole world in the strictest bonds of Catholick charity by a compleat and uniform profession and practice of one Religion And though there is no ground either in Scripture or Antiquity to found these rude indigested long and Hypocritical prayers on Yet their Patrons that they may continue to delude the people do like men in a Shipwrack lay hold of any plank to save them And therefore notwithstanding as they manage their prayers 't is apparent blasphemy to assert it they intitle the most Holy Spirit of God to all their loose insipid and most ridiculous prayers as if he were the very inditer of them or at least a wonderful and miraculous coadjutor in supplying by an immediate impulse an extempore man with matter and expressions Yet I know not well although I am able upon a private occasion to pray in this manner by my self upon what they can ground their peculiar confidence and extraordinary expectation in this matter but either upon the Primitive examples of men inspired when the infancy of the Church more necessarily required it which being extraordinary can be no common precedent Or upon some expressions of St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. chap. I will pray by the Spirit and I will sing by the Spirit and blessing by the Spirit and the like Now whatever assistances were at first given either for a sign to confirm the Authority of the Gospel or the Commission of any that Preached it to the World Or else to enable some to instruct others or to pray with them in those more early times of Christianity they are no more to be expected now the Gospel has been so long planted than that gift of tongues which St. Paul speaks of when he saies that he will sing or pray or bless by the Spirit And that this is the plain meaning of the forementioned Chapter is very obvious to any that will peruse it And that the Apostle though himself had extraordinary assistences in these matters does not incourage extempore devotions but only rebuke disorders among those who having the miraculous gift of tongues prayed in strange languages to the people which they understood not has been already concluded upon consideration of the Chapter in this Discourse But because it is urged by Fanaticks against us in another sence than that in which we urge it against the Papists as if they would give these a deliverance by a new interpretation I will speak a little upon it again to shew that praying by the Spirit in this place cannot countenance extempore prayer Nor has it any more relation to it than Latin and Greek has to English Nay as 't is now used not so much neither The Reverend Dr. Owen in his Critical Discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer c. has an excellent reason pag. 19. why the Holy Spirit does not formally pray Because all prayer whether Oral or Interpretative is the act of a nature inferior to that which is prayed to So that I suppose these mens prayers whatever in the mean time they say to us are not so immediately dictated by the Spirit as if he that uttered them were only the pipe through which without a Metaphor the waters or the wind flow But 't is some kind of assistance which they strive for to help their invention and expressions in prayer beyond a benign influence upon us to raise our graces and affections in our devotion Which if they understand themselves they are very loth to communicate the sence of it to others However that St. Paul cannot justifie them in this place is plain from the fourteenth Verse of the Chapter If I pray saies he in an unknown tongue my Spirit prayeth i. e. the gift of tongues which is an effect flowing from the Holy Ghost prayeth But my own apprehension of what by vertue of this extraordinary gift I utter is no argument to prove that it is advantageous unto others For saies he my understanding is unfruitful i.e. to those who hearing should have joined with me And then it follows I will pray by the Spirit and I will pray by my understanding also That is when he did pray in an unknown tongue he would by his understanding so interpret it as to render the prayer intelligible unto others So that understanding here is opposed to Spirit i.e. the speaking as those do who have not the gift of divers languages when they deliver
God they ought to be mindful both of Modesty and Discipline Non passim ventilare preces nostras inconditis vocibus c. Not to brethe out our prayers in insipid words nor throw out our petition which is modestly to be commended unto God with a tumultuous speech because God is not the hearer of the voice but the heart nor is he to be put in mind of any thing by clamours and outcries who sees and understands the thoughts of men And now I have finished this Discourse of Prayer which I both wrote for and preached to the people to whom I have as I ought fairly dedicated it And if others only to exercise their censuring talent shall find fault with it let them in charity honestly mend it or else they may as assuredly they will Turn the Buckles of their Girdles behind them FINIS I desire here to recommend to the Parishes to which the former Discourse is Dedicated a few Collections out of a Book intituled The Vindidication of the Presbyterial Government By the Ministers of the Province of London November the 2. 1649. THey complain that to such a degree of Apostasie some were arrived that they were labouring for an odious Toleration of all abominable Opinions as can shroud themselves under the name of the Christian Religion Pag. 103. And that those errors which were but few in the Prelates time were now many in theirs Their note on Rom. 16.17 Mark them which cause divisions c. is that we are not only required to avoid their Doctrines but their persons For proof of which is quoted 1 Tim. 6. ch 3 4 5. Pag. 104. The Doctrine of a Toleration of all Religions is contrary to Godliness and opens a door to Libertinism and Prophaneness And that all Doctrines are to be avoided that hold forth a strictness above what is written And therefore their advice is that men must be Candidates of a Canonical not an Apocryphal strictness And where God has not a mouth to speak men must not have an ear to hear nor an heart to believe Pag. 105. That Doctrine which crieth up Purity to the ruin of unity is contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel And they conclude with this affirmation That certainly the Government that carrieth in the front of it a Toleration of different Religions and is not sufficient to keep the Body of Christ in unity and purity is not the Government of Christ And again That Doctrine which is contrary to the rule of Faith or any duty required in the ten Commandments or to any petition of the Lords Prayer is not a Doctrine of Christ and therefore to be rejected Pag. 107. Nay they complain that then they were an Hypocritical Nation and the people of Gods wrath because they had been Truce-breakers Self-lovers Traytors false Accusers and all under the specious form of Godliness Nay if any will read over the Book they will by their own confessions prove some of the wickedest people under the Cope of Heaven We are say they Proud Secure Liars Swearers and forswearers Murderers Drunkards Adulterers and Oppressors We have not learned Righteousness but Unrighteousness by all the judgments of God We are worse and worse by all our deliverances We have spilt the blood of Christ in the Sacrament by our unworthy Receiving Nay after all this long Catalogue of sins they tell us that it would be too long to reckon all the particular relative iniquities of the party of Magistrates Ministers Husbands Wives c. And they conclude this with those expressions Isai 1. from the 5th Verse onwards Ah sinful people A people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers c. vid. Pag. 109 c. Let God and other men now judge out of their own mouths For 't is not my business to judge any man But to go on a little more with that Orthodox Doctrine which this Provincial Assembly there exhibited They say farther Pag. 119. That it is the duty of all Christians to enjoy the Ordinances of Christ in Unity and Uniformity as far as it is possible Because the Scripture calls to Unity and Uniformity as well as to Purity and Verity And that not only because it is not impossible in it self but for that God has promised that his Children shall serve him with one heart and with one way and with one shoulder And for this they quote the Prophets among the Jews predicting the glorious flourishing of the Gospel Jer. 32.39 Zeph. 3.9 Zech. 14.9 As also our blessed Saviours prayer That we may all be one as the Father was in him and he in the Father Joh. 17.21 That so from the unity and love of his Disciples the world might believe that God had sent him And therefore this Provincial Assembly concludes That nothing hinders the propagation of the Gospel so much as the divisions and separation of Gospel Professors Nay they farther say That if all men cannot come up in all particulars to the Uniformity of the Church Yet they ought to hold Communion together in what they agree And to prove this they quote the Text which that very worthy and Reverend Person Dr. Stillingfleet the present Dean of St. Pauls Church chose to Preach his most excellent Sermon from before the Lord Major of this Honourable City against which so many pens have been sharpned and blunted too Phil. 3.16 Nevertheless whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Let us mind the same thing Nay they add also that this was the practice of the Primitive Christians Which is the very same thing which the Reverend Dean endeavoured to prove And yet men pretending to the same Principles with these Provincial Divines either as plainly endeavour to deny such things or according to the custom of Pharisees Jesuits attempt to evade them by face or distinction The Lord help me who am a poor simple man when persons of wonderful and miraculous education and learning thus talk in and out Nay farther in the matter of forbearance the Provincial Divines desire only that all things may be tolerated that consist with the fundamentals of Religion the Power of Godliness and with that Peace which Christ has established in his Church But to Preach up or practise that which makes Ruptures in the Body of Christ I use here their own language and to divide Church from Church and to set up Church against Church and to gather Churches out of true Churches and to hold Communion in nothing This say they we think hath no warrant out of the word of God and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and families And not only disturb but in a little time destroy the power of Godliness Purity of Religion Peace of Christians Nay set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism Popery Heresie and all manner of wickedness And therefore this Provincial Assembly of the Ministers of the Province of London concludes Pag. 121. with that description which Dr. Ames gives