AN APOLOGY FOR AUTHORIZED and SET FORMS OF LITVRGIE AGAINST THE PRETENCE OF THE SPIRIT 1. For ex tempore Prayer AND 2. Formes of Private composition Hierocl in Pythag. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} LONDON Printed for R. Royston in Ivie-lane 1649 To His most Sacred Majesty IT is now two yeares since part of these ensuing Papers like the publike issue of the people imperfect and undressed were exposed without a Parent to protest them or any hand to nourish them But since your Most Sacred Majesty was pleased graciously to looke upon them they are growne into a Tract and have an ambition like the Gourd of Jonas to dwell in the eye of the Sunne from whence they received life and increment And although because some violence hath been done to the profession of the doctrine of this Treatise it may seem to be verbum in tempore non suo and like the offering Cypresse to a Conquerour or Palmes to a broken Army yet I hope I shall the lesse need an Apology because it is certaine he does really disserve no just and Noble interest that serves that of the Spirit and Religion And because the sufferings of a KING and a Confessour are the great demonstration to all the world that Truth is as Deare to your MAJESTY as the Iewells of your Diademe and that your Conscience is tender as a pricked eye I shall pretend this onely to alleviate the inconvenience of an unseasonable addresse that I present your MAJESTY with a humble persecuted truth of the same constitution with that condition whereby you are become most Deare to God as having upon you the characterisme of the Sonnes of God bearing in your Sacred Person the markes of the Lord Jesus who is your Elder Brother the King of Sufferings and the Prince of the Catholique Church But I consider that Kings and their Great Councels and Rulers Ecclesiasticall have a speciall obligation for the defence of Liturgies because they having the greatest Offices have the greatest needs of auxiliaries from Heaven which are best procured by the publike Spirit the Spirit of Government and Supplication And since the first the best and most Solemne Liturgies and Set formes of Prayer were made by the best and greatest Princes by Moses by David and the Sonne of David Your MAJESTY may be pleased to observe such a proportion of circumstances in my laying this Apology for Liturgy at Your feet that possibly I may the easier obtaine a pardon for my great boldnesse which if I shall hope for in all other contingencies I shall represent my selfe a person indifferent whether I live or die so I may by either serve God and Gods Church and Gods Vicegerent in the capacity of Great Sir Your Majesties most humble and most obedient Subject and Servant TAYLOR An APOLOGY for LITURGY I Have read over this Booke which the Assembly sect. of Divines is pleased to call The Directory for Prayer I confesse I came to it with much expectation and was in some measure confident I should have found it an exact and unblameable modell of Devotion free from all those Objections which men of their owne perswasion had obtruded against the Publike Liturgy of the Church of England or at least it should have been composed with so much artifice and finenesse that it might have been to all the world an argument of their learning and excellency of spirit if not of the goodnesse and integrity of their Religion and purposes I shall give no other character of the whole but that the publike disrelish which I find amongst Persons of great piety of all qualities not onely of great but even of ordinary understandings is to me some argument that it lies so open to the objections even of common spirits that the Compilers of it did intend more to prevaile by the successe of their Armies then the strength of reason and the proper grounds of perswasion which yet most wise and good Men beleeve to be the more Christian way of the two But because the judgment I made of it from an argument so extrinsecall to the nature of the thing could not reasonably enable me to satisfie those many Persons who in their behalf desired me to consider it I resolv'd to looke upon it nearer and to take its account from something that was ingredient to its Constitution that I might be able both to exhort and convince the Gainsayers who refuse to hold fast {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that faithfull word which they had been taught by their Mother the Church of England I shall decline to speake of the efficient cause of this sect. 2 Directory and not quarrell at it that it was composed against the Lawes both of England and all Christendome If the thing were good and pious and did not directly or accidentally invade the rights of a just Superiour I would learne to submit to the imposition and never quarrell at the incompetency of his authority that ingaged me to doe pious and holy things And it may be when I am a little more used to it I shall not wonder at a Synod in which not one Bishop sits in the capacity of a Bishop though I am most certaine this is the first example in England since it was first Christned But for the present it seems something hard to digest it because I know so well that all Assemblies of the Church have admitted Priests to consultation and dispute but never to authority and decision till the Pope enlarging the phylacteries of the Archimandrites and Abbots did sometime by way of priviledge and dispensation give to some of them decisive voices in publick Councels but this was one of the things in which he did innovate and invade against the publike resolutions of Christendome though he durst not doe it often and yet when he did it it was in very small and inconsiderable numbers I said I would not meddle with the Efficient and sect. 3 I cannot meddle with the Finall cause nor guesse at any other ends and purposes of theirs then at what they publikely professe which is the abolition and destruction of the Booke of Common Prayer which great change because they are pleased to call Reformation I am content in charity to believe they thinke it so and that they have Zelum Dei but whether secundum scientiam according to knowledge or no must be judg'd by them who consider the matter and the forme But because the matter is of so great variety and sect. 4 minute Consideration every part whereof would require as much scrutiny as I purpose to bestow upon the whole I have for the present chosen to consider onely the forme of it concerning which I shall give my judgment without any sharpnesse or bitternesse of spirit for I am resolved not to be angry with any men of another perswasion as knowing that I differ just as much from them as they doe from me The Directory takes away that Forme of Prayer
sect. 5 which by the authority and consent of all the obliging power of the Kingdome hath been used and enjoyned ever since the Reformation But this was done by men of differing spirits and of disagreeing interests Some of them consented to it that they might take away all set formes of prayer and give way to every man's spirit the other that they might take away this Forme and give way and countenance to their owne The First is an Enemy to all deliberation The Second to all authority They will have no man to deliberate These would have none but themselves The former are unwise and rash the latter are pleased with themselves and are full of opinion They must be considered apart for they have rent the Question in pieces and with the fragment in his hand every man hath run his owne way First of them that deny all set Formes though in sect. 6 the subject matter they were confessed innocent and blamelesse And here I consider that the true state of the Question sect. 7 is onely this Whether it is better to pray to God with Consideration or without Whether is the wiser Man of the two he who thinks and deliberates what to say or he that utters his mind as fast as it comes Whether is the better man he who out of reverence to God is most carefull and curious that he offend not in his tongue and therefore he himselfe deliberates and takes the best guides he can or he who out of the confidence of his owne abilities or other exteriour affistances {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} speaks what ever comes uppermost And here I have the advice and counsell of a very sect. 8 wise man no lesse than Solomon Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few The consideration of the vast distance between God and us Heaven and Earth should create such apprehensions in us that the very best and choicest of our offertories are not acceptable but by Gods gracious vouchsasing and condescension and therefore since we are so much indebted to God for accepting our best it is not safe ventured to present him with a dowbaked sacrifice and put him off with that which in nature and humane consideration is absolutely the worst for such is all the crude and imperfect utterance of our more imperfect conceptions Hoc non probo in philosopho cujus oratio sicut vita debet esse composita said Seneca A wise mans speech should be like his life and actions composed studied and considered And if ever inconsideration be the cause of sinne and vanity it is in our words and therefore is with greatest care to be avoided in our prayers we being most of all concerned that God may have no quarrell against them for folly or impiety But abstracting from the reason let us consider sect. 9 who keeps the precept best He that deliberates or he that considers not when he speaks What man in the world is hasty to offer any thing unto God if he be not who praies ex tempore And then adde to it but the weight of Solomon's reason and let any man answer me if he thinks it can well stand with that reverence we owe to the immense the infinite and to the eternall God the God of wisdome to offer him a sacrifice which we durst not present to a Prince or a prudent Governour in re seriâ such as our prayers ought to be And that this may not be dash'd with a pretence sect. 10 it is carnall reasoning I desire it may be remembred that it is the argument God himself uses against lame maimed and imperfect sacrifices Go and offer this to thy Prince see if he will accept it implying that the best person is to have the best present and what the Prince will slight as truly unworthy of him much more is it unfit for God For God accepts not of any thing we give or doe as if he were bettered by it for therefore it's estimate is not taken by it's relation or naturall complacency to him for in it self it is to him as nothing but God accepts it by it's proportion and commensuration to us That which we call our best and is truly so in humane estimate that pleases God for it declares that if we had better we would give it him But to reserve the best saies too plainly that we think any thing is good enough for him As therefore God in the Law would not be served by that which was imperfect in genere naturae so neither now nor ever will that please him which is imperfect in genere morum or materiâ intellectuali when we can give a better And therefore the wisest Nations and the most sect. 11 sober Persons prepared their Verses and Prayers in set formes with as much religion as they dressed their sacrifices and observ'd the rites of Festivalls and Burialls Amongst the Romans it belong'd to the care of the Priests to worship in prescrib'd and determin'd words In omni precatione qui vota effundit Sacerdos Vestam Janum aliosque Deos praescriptis verbis composito carmine advocare solet The Greeks did so too receiving their prayers by dictate word for word Itaque sua carmina suaeque precationes singulis diis institutae sunt quas plerunque nequid praeposterè dicatur aliquis ex praescripto praeire ad verbum referre solebat Their hymnes and prayers were ordained peculiar to every God which lest any thing should be said preposteroufly were usually pronounced word for word after the Priest and out of written Copies and the Magi among the Persians were as considerate in their devotions Magos Persas primo sempèr diluculo canere Diis hymnos laudes meditato solenni precationis carmine The Persians sang hymnes to their Gods by the morning twilight in a premeditate solemne and metricall forme of prayer faith the same Authour For since in all the actions and discourses of men that which is the least considered is likely to be the worst and is certainly of the greatest disreputation it were a strange cheapnesse of opinion towards God and Religion to be the most incurious of what we say to him and in our religious offices It is strange that every thing should be considered but our Prayers It is spoken by Eunapius to the honour of Proaeresius Schollars that when the Proconsul asked their judgments in a question of Philosophy they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they with much consideration and care gave in answer those words of Aristides that they were not of the number of those that used to vomit out answers but of those that considered every word they were to speake Nihil enim ordinatum est quod praecipitatur properat said Seneca
great mercy to that people they had not knowne how to have composed an office for the daily service of the Temple without danger of asking things needlesse vaine or impious such as were the prayers in the Roman Closets that he was a good man that would not owne them Et nihil arcano qui roget ore Deos. Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere dajustum sanctumque videri Noctem peccatis fraudibus objice nubem But when the Holy Ghost came downe in a full breath and a mighty wind he filled the breasts and tongues of men and furnished the first Christians not onely with abilities enough to frame excellent devotions for their present offices but also to become precedents for Liturgy to all ages of the Church the first being imitated by the second and the second by the third till the Church being setled in peace and the records transmitted with greater care and preserved with lesse hazard the Church chose such Formes whose Copies we retaine at this day Now since it was certaine that all ages of the Church sect. 39 would looke upon the first Fathers in Christ and Founders of Churches as precedents and Tutours and Guides in all the parts of their Religion and that prayer with its severall parts and instances is a great portion of the Religion the Sacraments themselves being instruments of grace and effectuall in genere orationis it is very reasonable to think that the Apostolicall men had not onely the first fruits but the elder Brothers share a double portion of the Spirit because they were not onely to serve their owne needs to which a single and an ordinary portion would have been then as now abundantly sufficient but also to serve the necessity of the succession and to instruct the Church for ever after But then that this assistance was an ability to pray ex sect. 40 tempore I find it no where affirmed by sufficient authentick Testimony and if they could have done it it is very likely they would have been wary and restrained in the publike use of it I doubt not but there might then be some sudden necessities of the Church for which the Church being in her infancy had not as yet provided any publike formes concerning which cases I may say as Quintilian of an Oratour in the great and sudden needs of the Common-wealth Quarum si qua non dico cuicunque innocentiam civium sed amicorum ac propinquorum alicui evenerit stabÃtne matus salutarem parentibus vocem statim si non succurratur perituris moras secessum silentium quaeret dum illa verba fabricentur memoriae insidant vox ac latus praeparetur I doe not thinke that they were oratores imparati ad casus but that an ability of praying on a sudden was indulged to them by a specall aide of the Spirit to contest against sudden dangers and the violence of new accidents to which also possibly a new inspiration was but for a very little while necessary even till they understood the mysteries of Christianity and the revelations of the Spirit by proportion and analogy to which they were sufficiently instructed to make their sudden prayers when sudden occasions did require This I speak by way of concession and probability sect. 41 For no man can prove thus much as I am willing relying upon the reasonablenesse of the Conjecture to suppose but that praying with the Spirit in this place is praying without study art or deliberation is not so much as intimated For 1. It is here implyed that they did prepare some of sect. 42 those devotions to which they were helped by the Spirit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} when you come together each of you peradventure hath a Psalme {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not every one makes but when you meet every one hath viz. already which supposes they had it prepared against the meeting For the Spirit could help as well at home in their meditation as in the publike upon a sudden and though it is certaine the Holy Spirit loves to blesse the publike meetings the communion of Saints with speciall benedictions yet I suppose my Adversaries are not willing to acknowledge any thing that should doe much reputation to the Church and the publike authoriz'd conventions at least not to confine the Spirit to such holy and blessed meetings They will I suppose rather grant the words doe probably intimate they came prepared with a Hymne and therefore there is nothing in the nature of the thing but that so also might their other formes of Prayer the assistance of the Spirit which is the thing in Question hinders not but that they also might have made them by premeditation 2. In this place praying with the Spirit signifies no sect. 43 other extraordinary assistance but that the Spirit help'd them to speake their prayer in an unknowne Tongue {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} If I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is without fruit what then I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also Plainly here praying in the Spirit which is opposed to praying in understanding is praying in an unknown tongue where by the way observe that praying with the Spirit even in sense of Scripture is not alwaies most to edification of the people Not alwaies with understanding And when these two are separated Saint Paul preferres five words with understanding before ten thousand in the spirit For this praying with the Spirit was indeed then a gift extraordinary and miraculous like as prophecying with the Spirit and expired with it But while it did last it was the lowest of gifts inter dona linguarum it was but a gift of the tongue and not to the benefit of the Church directly or immediately This also observe in passing by If Saint Paul did so sect. 44 undervalue the praying with the Spirit that he preferred edifying the Church a thousand degrees beyond it I suppose he would have been of the same mind if the Question had between praying with the Spirit and obeying our Superiours as he was when it was between praying with the Spirit and edification of the Church because if I be not mistaken it is matter of great concernment towards the edification of the Church to obey our Superiours not to innovate in publike formes of worship especially with the scandall and offence of very wise and learned men and to the disgrace of the dead Martyrs who sealed our Liturgy with their bloud But to returne In this place praying with the Spirit sect. 45 beside the assistance given by the Holy Ghost to speake in a strange tongue is no more then my spirit praying that is it implies my co-operation with the assistance of the Spirit of God insomuch that the whole action may truly be denominated mine and is called of the Spirit onely
him into a condition to judge for himself If he will venture he may but we can use no argument to make him choose our Churches though he would quit his owne 6. So that either the people must have an implicite sect. 106 faith in the Priest and then may most easily be abused or if they have not they cannot joyne in the prayer it cannot become to them an instrument of communion but by chance and irregularly and ex post facte when the prayer is approv'd of and after the devotion is spent for till then they cannot judge and before they doe they cannot say Amen and till Amen be said there is no benefit of the prayer nor no union of hearts and desires and therefore as yet no communion 7. Publike Formes of prayer are great advantages to sect. 107 convey an Article of faith into the most secret retirement of the Spirit and to establish it with a most firme perswasion and indeare it to us with the greatest affection For since our prayers are the greatest instruments and conveyances of blessing and mercy to us that which mingles with our hopes which we owne to God which is sent of an errand to fetch a mercy for us in all reason will become the dearer to us for all these advantages And just so is an Article of belief inserted into our devotions and made a part of prayer it is extreamly confirmed by that confidence and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} fulnesse of perswasion that must exclude all doubting from our prayers and it insinuates it self into our affection by being mingled with our desires and we grow bold in it by having offered it to God and made so often acknowledgement of it to him who is not to be mooked And certainly it were a very strange Liturgy in sect. 108 which there were no publike Confession of Faith for as it were deficient in one act of Gods worship which is offering the understanding up to God bringing it in subjection to Christ and making publike profession of it it also loses a very great advantage which might accrue to Faith by making it a part of our Liturgique devotions and this was so apprehended by the Ancients in the Church our Fathers in Christ that commonly they used to oppose a Hymne or a Collect or a Doxology in defiance of a new-sprung Haeresie The Fathers of Nice fram'd the Gloria Patri against the Arians Saint Austin compos'd a Hymne against the Donatists Saint Hierome added the sicut erat in principio against the Macedonians S. Ambrose fram'd the Te Deum upon occasion of Saint Austine's Baptisme but tooke care to make the Hymne to be of most solemne adoration and yet of prudent institution and publique Confession that according to the advice of Saint Paul we might sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord and at the same time teach and admonish one another too Now this cannot be done but in Set formes of prayer for in new devotions and uncertain formes we may also have an ambulatory faith and new Articles may be offered before every Sermon and at every convention the Church can have no security to the contrary nor the Article any stable foundation or advantageous insinuation either into the judgment or memory of the persons to be informed or perswaded but like Abraham's sacrifice as soone as his back is turn'd the birds shall eate it up Quid quod haec oratio quae sanandis mentibus adhibetur descendere in nos debet Remedia non prosunt nisi immorentur A cursory Prayer shall have a transient effect when the hand is off the impression also is gone 8. Without the description of publike formes of prayer sect. 109 there can be no security given in the matter of our prayers but we may burne assa foetida for incense and the marrow of a Mans bones in stead of the fat of Rammes and of all things in the world we should be most curious that our prayers be not turned into sinne and yet if they be not prescribed and preconsidered nothing can secure them antecedently the people shall go to Church but without confidence that they shall returne with a blessing for they know not whether God shall have a present made of a holy oblation or else whether the Minister will stand in the gap or make the gap wider But this I touch'd upon before 9. They preserve the authority and sacrednesse of Government sect. 110 and possibly they are therefore decried that the reputation of authority may decline together For as God hath made it the great Cancell between the Clergy and the People that they are deputed to speake to God for them so is it the great distinction of the persons in that order that the Rulers shall judge between the Ministers and the People in relation to God with what addresses they shall come before God and intercede for the People for so Saint Paul enjoynes that the spirits of the Prophets should be submitted to the Prophets viz. to be discern'd and judg'd by them which thing is not practicable in permissions of every Minister to pray what formes he pleases every day 10. Publike formes of Liturgy are also the great securities sect. 111 and basis to the religion and piety of the people for circumstances governe them most and the very determination of a publike office and the appointment of that office at certain times engages their spirits the first to an habituall the latter to an actuall devotion It is all that the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} many men know of their Religion and they cannot any way know it better then by those Formes of prayer which publish their faith and their devotion to God and all the world and which by an admirable expedient reduces their faith into practice and places their Religion in their understanding and affections And therefore Saint Paul when he was to give an account of his Religion he did it not by a meer recitation of the Articles but by giving account of his Liturgy and the manner of his worship After that way which they call haeresie so worship I the God of my Fathers And the best worship is the best religion and therefore I am not to trust any man to make my manner of worshipping unlesse I durst trust him to be the Dictator of my Religion and a Forme of Prayer made by a private man is also my Religion made by a private man So that we must say after the manner that G. the Minister of B. shall conceive and speak so worship I the God of my Fathers and if that be reasonable or pious let all the world judge 11. But when Authority shall consider and determine sect. 112 upon a forme of Liturgy and this be used and practised in a Church there is an admirable conjunction in the Religion and great co-operation towards the glory of God The authority of the injunction adds great reputation to the
devotion and takes off the contempt which from the no-authority of single and private persons must be consequent to their conceived prayers and the publike practise of it and union of Spirits in the devotion satisfies the world in the nature of it and the Religion of the Church 12. But nothing can answer for the great scandall sect. 113 which all wise persons and all good persons in the world must needs receive when there is no publike testimony consigned that such a whole Nation or a Church hath anything that can be called Religion and those little umbrages that are are casuall as chance it self alterable as time and shall be good when those infinite numbers of men that are trusted with it shall please to be honest or shall have the good luck not to be mistaken 13. I will not now instance in the vain-glory that is appendant sect. 114 to these new made every-dayes forms of prayer and that some have been so vaine like the Orators Quintilian speaks of ut verbum petant quo incipiant that they have published their ex tempore faculty upon experiment and scenicall bravery you shall name the instance and they shall compose the forme Amongst whom also the gift of the man is more then the devotion of the man nor will I consider that then his gift is esteemed best when his prayer is longest and if he takes a complacency in his gift as who is not apt to doe it he will be sure to extend his prayer till a suspitious and scrupulous man would be apt to say his Prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees who thought to be heard for their much babling I know it was observed by a very wise man that the vanity of spirit and popular opinion that growes great and talks loudly of his abilities that can speake ex tempore may not onely be the incentive but a helper of the faculty and make a man not onely to love it but to be the more able to doe it Addit ad dicendum etiam pudor stimulos addit dicendorum expectata laus mirumque videri potest quod cum stylus secreto gaudeat atque omnes arbitros reformidet extemporalis actio auditorum frequentiâ ut miles congestu signorum excitatur Namque difficiliorem concitationem exprimit expolit dicendi necessitas secundos impetus auget placendi cupido Adeò praemium omnia spectant omnia eloquentia quoque quanquam plurimum habeat in se voluptatis maximè tamen praesenti fructu laudis opinionisque ducatur It may so happen that the opinion of the people as it is apt to actuate the faculty so also may encourage the practise and spoile the devotion But these things are accidentall to the nature of the thing and therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person yet I will not be too severe but preserve my self on the surer side of a charitable construction which truly I desire to keep not onely to their persons whom I much reverence but also to their actions But yet I durst not doe the same thing even for these last reasons though I had no other In the next place we must consider the next great objection sect. 115 that is with much clamour pretended viz. that in set Formes of Prayer we restrain and confine the blessed Spirit and in conceived Formes when every man is left to his liberty then the Spirit is free unlimited and unconstrained I answer either their conceived formes I use their own sect. 116 words though indeed the expression is very inartificiall are premeditate and described or they are ex tempore If they be premeditate and described then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived Formes as in the Churches conceived Formes For as to this particular it is all one who describes and limits the Forme whether the Church or a single man does it still the Spirit is in constraint and limit So that in this case they are not angry at set Forms of Prayer but that they do not make them And if it be replied that if a single person composes a set Forme he may alter it if he please and so his Spirit is at liberty I answer so may the Church if She see cause for it and unlesse there be cause the single person will not alter it unlesse he do things unreasonable and without cause So that it will be an unequall challenge and a peevish quarrell to allow of set Formes Prayer made by private Persons and not of set Formes made by the publick Spirit of the Church It is evident that the Spirt is limited in both alike But if by conceived Formes in this Objection they sect. 117 mean ex tempore Prayers for so they would be thought most generally to practise it and that in the use of these the liberty of the Spirit is best preserved To this I answer that the being ex tempore or premeditate will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the Spirit For there may be great liberty in set Formes even when there is much variety and there may be great restraint in extempore prayers even then when it shall be called unlawfull to use set formes That the Spirit is restrained or that it is free in either is accidentall to them both for it may be either free or not free in both as it may happen But the restraint is this that every one is not left to sect. 118 his liberty to pray how he list with premeditation or without it makes not much matter but that he is prescribed unto by the spirit of another But if it be a fault thus to restrain the Spirit I would faine know is not the Spirit restrained when the whole Congregation shall be confined to the Forme of this one mans composing Or shall it be unlawfull or at least a disgrace and disparagement to use any set Formes especially of the Churches composition More plainly thus 2. Doth not the Minister confine and restrain the sect. 119 Spirit of the Lords People when they are tyed to his Forme It would sound of more liberty to their Spirits that every one might make a prayer of his own and all pray together and not be forced or confined to the Ministers single dictate and private Spirit It is true it would breed confusions and therefore they might pray silently till the Sermon began and not for the avoiding one inconvenience run into a greater and to avoid the disorder of a popular noise restrain the blessed Spirit for even in this case as well as in the other Where the Spirit of God is there must be liberty 3. If the spirit must be at liberty who shall assure us sect. 120 this liberty must be in Formes of Prayer And if so whether also it must be in publick Prayer and will it not suffice that it be in private And if in publick Prayers is not the