Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	holy_a	preach_v	2,417	5	6.6202	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80626	A modest and cleer ansvver to Mr. Ball's discourse of set formes of prayer. Written by the reverend and learned John Cotton, B.D. and teacher of the Church of Christ at Boston in New-England. Published for the benefit of those who desire satisfaction in that point	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.	1642 (1642)	Wing C6444; ESTC R212884	45,765	95

so it is unlawfull to worship God in a form of words devised by the Officers of one Congregation and prescribed and imposed upon others Disc Nay saith your Discourse for the form of words is not worship but the Prayer tendered in that form Answ As Prayer is Worship so the form in which prayer is offered to God is Modus or Medium Cultus the manner or means or help of Worship which if it be not warranted and instituted of God it is forbidden in the second Commandement when God forbad his people to worship him in such a manner as the Gentiles served their gods he ordained them a rule to be perpetually observed in all service to him to wit that we should worship him as himself hath commanded which the opposition inferreth that his meaning is not only with such duties but in such a manner as himself hath commanded without adding ought thereto or taking ought therefrom Deut 12.30 31 32. Now he hath commanded us to pray in the spirit Eph. 6.18 which implies not only with such affections as his Spirit kindleth and stirreth up but also with such matter and words as his spirit helpeth us unto For his Spirit is said to help us what to pray which else we should not know Rom. 8.26 Now in a stinted prescript form of prayer we know what to pray without the Spirit when we joyn in prayer with another who is our mouth to God though we know what to pray by his help yet it is such an help as the Spirit himself hath provided 1 Cor. 14.16 Disc It followeth in the Discourse that mens inventions in Gods worship that be of the same nature and use with true worship or with means of worship ordained by God be unlawfull but method phrase order of speech devised by man was never judged an invention of man unlawfull Answ 1. This hath been alledged and answered before but this further let me adde 1. That the words imply that mens inventions that be not of the same nature and use with the worship of God or with the means thereof are lawfull whereas it is evident that the making of perfume like unto the incense of the Tabernacle though not to the same use in Gods worship but to smell at was rejected of God as utterly unlawfull Exod. 30.38 The making of like things to the ordinances of God or to the means of worship though not to the like end but to any religious end will not be allowed in the second Commandement as Gideons Ephod declareth 2. These set forms of prayer prescribed to the Churches we see not but that they are of the same nature and enjoyned for the same use for which any forms of prayer in Scripture are ordained of God and therefore by the verdict of your Discourse they are unlawfull For as those forms of prayer in Scripture are given of God to supply the Church with fit matter for their petitions and praises upon sundry occasions And for the use to the edification of the Church so the forms now in question are of the like nature given to the like end only injoyned with more strictnesse and severity which maketh both their use lesse profitable and their burthen more heavy then Gods own institutions 3. Method phrase and order of speech devised by men was judged an unlawfull invention by Paul when such wisdom of words in preaching become not the simplicity of the Gospel 1 Cor. 2. therefore it cannot be said that method phrase and order of speech devised by man was never judged an unlawfull invention and surely method phrase order of speech devised and prescribed by one Congregation to another in prayer doth as little beseem liberty and purity of the Gospel as the other in preaching did ill become the simplicity of the Gospel Disc Set prayer is no strange manner of worship because in it all things required to the nature of true prayer may be observed Answ This hath been answered before more goeth to the lawfulnesse of a prayer then the nature of true prayer defect in any circumstance though but in externall form maketh a prayer unlawfull Disc In what method and frame of speech to pray we find nothing prescribed of God in particular neither do we judge any thing necessary more then that order decency and edification be regarded Answ Be it so but how then shall men have power to prescribe to the Churches method and form of speech in prayer when God hath prescribed nothing The Apostles who had the largest and highest Commission of any Church governours in the New Testament yet they had no power to teach or to prescribe to the Churches any other things then what Christ had commanded them Matth. 28.19 20. Say not though no other things yet Church governours may command such and such manner of those things for then a further Commission must be shown where Christ gave to his Apostles or their successors power to ordain and prescribe such and such manner of the administration of his holy things as themselves should see good But we never saw any such commission held forth to this day from any colour of Scripture light that only place 1 Cor. 14.40 which is alledged in this case is farre off from reaching forth any such authority for though the place do shew that it is the duty of the Church to administer all the holy things of God in order and decency and to edification and to see that all things be so carried yet it doth not give to the Church any such power as to make orders or to ordain forms of decency or to devise means of edification which himself hath not ordained the Church may indeed appoint such orders the neglect whereof would be disorderly and confusion as they may appoint one Prophet to speak at once and when another is called to begin the first to hold his peace because the neglect hereof would breed confusion The Church may appoint such decencies the neglect whereof would be undecent as for men to pray bare-headed and women covered because the contrary were uncomely by the light of nature and civill custome The Church may appoint and ought to use such helps and means to edification as the Lord hath instituted to that end but if the Church go beyond the bounds of this power they do at once both exceed the bounds of Apostolicall authority and cut short the bounds of Christian liberty Disc A set form of prayer is for substance and nature agreeable to the rules of direction delivered in the word of truth though for method and word it be humane as conceived prayer is Answ A set form of prayer as it is set by one Congregation for another can find no rule of direction nor any foot-step thereof in the word of truth In saying that for method and words a set form of prayer is humane as conceived prayer is there is the like liberty taken of Sophistry in an equivocation which was observed before for though

might appear to all That he might shew himself approved unto God A workman that needeth not to be ashamed 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15. with 2 Tim. 2.15 But give me leave to speak without offence You seem to me in this point to take too much liberty in a serious cause to play upon equivocation It is true in studying a Sermon the Preacher useth his Invention and Judgement and in that sence his Sermon may be called mans Invention But you are not ignorant we speak in this cause of such inventions of men as God hath given neither Commandement nor direction for in his Word In which sence a studied Sermon is no more a mans Invention than a studied answer which Solomon commendeth as a path of the Righteous Prov 15.28 The like may be said of the next instance which is Interpretation of Scriptures as also a conceived Prayer Interpretation of Scripture is from a spiritual gift which God hath given and commanded to be used for the edification of his Church 1 Cor. 14.26 Nehem. 8.8 So is Prayer conceived from a spirit and gift of prayer which is to be used also and attended to as a principall part of the Ministeriall office 1 Cor. 14.15 Acts 6.4 Obj If it be said but I may take an Interpretation or Translation of Scripture from others and therefore a form of Prayers from others also Answ 1. There is a broad difference betwixt an Interpretation of Scripture as it is put for translation of Scripture and read Prayer for reading of Scripture in the Church is an ordinance of God so is the reading of it in a tongue which the people understandeth and therefore it is an ordinance of God that the Word be read in some translation But the reading of a prayer for the prayers of the Church is no ordinance of God therefore there is not the like ground from the Word to make use of Prayer-Books to read prayers as to make use of a printed Bible for the reading of the Word 2. Every Minister that hath understanding of the originall languages wherein the Scripture was written ought to make use of his own gift in examining the truth of the translation which he readeth unto the Church which will not be allowed in prescript Lyturgies As for the division of Scriptures into Sections and Chapters and the reading of one part this Week and the other next It is certain division of Scripture is antient even from the times of the Prophets And evident it is the whole Scripture cannot be read over in one day And therefore it is from God that some divisions of Scriptures be observed according to the variety of matter therein contained and distinctly devideth it selfe and consequently it is from God that one part of it be read at this Assembly another at the next because all cannot be read at once And yet we know no warrant that one Church should prescribe another what division to make of the Scriptures or what part of it should be read this day and what the next what God hath lest free let no man limit Disc Preaching is commanded of God so is interpretation of Scripture but phrase and method of Interpretation is of men The matter of the Scripture is the immediate Word of God but the Word and phrase which are Vessels to convey this truth to us I speak of Translations not of the Originall Text are humane and not of God by immediate inspiration God commandeth us to call upon him both in publique and private but the words in which we expresse our desires are our own both in conceived and stinted Prayer Answ It is true preaching of the Word and the Interpretation of the Word are of God but the phrase and Method is of men yet so of men as they have commandement and warrant from God to preach and interpret the Word and not in what phrase and Method please themselves nor in such words as mans wisdome teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2.13 Nor so from men as that the men of one Church may devise a set form thereof and binde all men as well of other Churches as their own to this or that manner of phrase or Method the like is to be said of prayer also But when your Discourse saith that the words wherein we expresse our desires are our own in conceived and stinted prayer you might as well have said that the words wherein we deliver our Sermons are our own both in conceived Sermons and in stinted Homilies Disc These two kinds of Prayer conceived and stinted agree in their Author Matter Form Object end and common nature the one is no more an Invention of man than the other so then devised Worship is unlawfull but not a worship in a form of words devised Answ And so might we say of prayer to God before an Image and prayer without an Image they are two kinds of prayer that agree in their Author matter form object end and common nature yet we cannot say the one is more an invention of men than the other As devised Worship is unlawfull so are devised forms and means of worship unlawfull also of which sort such set forms of words be as are devised and composed by the officers of one Congregation and imposed upon the brethren of another Congregation for the forms of their prayers Answ 2. We cannot say as you do that such conceived and stinted forms agree in their Authors for I am not the Author of the matter of that prayer which another man composed and was the Author of and is now stinted and prescribed to me no more then I can be said to be the Author of that Sermon which another man indited Battyllus was not the Authour of Virgil's Verses Though he resiteth them as his own Virgil justly challengeth his own out of his hand Hos ego versiculas feci c. Nor can we say that such conceived or stinted forms agree in their form if by form be meant externall form it is not the same form of walking to walk with Crutches and to walk upright It is not the same form of prayer to pray with help of mens inventions and with such helps only as the Holy Ghost supplyeth which also hindereth that they cannot be said to agree in their common nature The one being a lawfull form of prayer the other unlawfull And therefore when your Discourse saith that conceived and stinted prayer the one is no more the invention of man than the other we cannot understand the truth of that for in conceived prayer the Spirit of God within us teacheth us what to pray And for that the Ordinance and Word of God is plain Rom. 8.26 But in stinted prayer the matter is not suggested or indited to us by the Spirit of God within us but prescribed and imposed upon us by the will wisdome and authority of men whom the Holy Ghost hath not called to such a work as therefore a devised worship is unlawfull