common People of Christians nor ever been the means of that Idolatry which at length spread it self over the whole visible Church of these parts of the World had not this Device of prescribed Forms of Prayer wherein those Abominations were not only expressed but graphically represented and acted so violently affecting the carnal Minds of men superstitious and ignorant imposed them on their practice which gradually hardened them with an obdurate credulity For although they saw no ground or reason Doctrinally to believe what was proposed unto them about Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass and might easily have seen that they were contradictory unto all the conductive Principles of men and Christians namely Faith Reason and Sense yet they deceived themselves into an obstinate pretence of believing in the notion of Truth of what they had admitted in practice Men I say of corrupt minds might have disputed long enough about vagrant Forms Accidents without subjects Transmutation of substances without Accidents Sacrifices bloody and unbloody before they had vitiated the whole Worship of the Church with gross Idolatry had not this engine been made use of for its introduction and the minds of men by this means inveagled with the practice of it But when the whole matter and means of it was gradually insinuated into and at length comprized in those Forms of Prayer which they were obliged continually to use in Divine Service their whole Souls became leavened and tainted with a confidence in and love unto these Abominations Hence it was that the Doctrines concerning the Sacraments and the whole worship of God in the Church as they became gradually corrupted were not at once Objectively and Doctrinally proposed to the minds and considerations of men to be received or rejected according to the Evidence they had of their Truth or Error a method due to the Constitution of our Natures but gradually insinuated into their practice by Additional Forms of Prayer which they esteemed themselves obliged to use and observe This was the gilding of the poysonous Pill whose operation when it was swallowed was to bereave men of their Sense Reason and Faith and make them madly avow that to be true which was contrary unto them all Besides as was before intimated the things themselves that were the ground-work of Idolatry namely Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass were so acted and represented in those Forms of Worship as to take great impression on the minds of carnal men until they were mad on their Idols For when all Religion and Devotion is let into the Soul by Fancy and Imagination excited by outward spectacles they will make mad work in the World as they have done and yet continue to do But hereof I shall speak in the next place It had therefore been utterly impossible that an Idolatrous Worship should have been introduced into the Church in general had not the Opinion of the necessity of devised Forms of Prayer been first universally received At least it had not been so introduced and so established as to procure and cause the shedding of the blood of thousands of Holy persons for not complying with it By this means alone was brought in that fatal engine of the Churches Ruine from whose murderous efficacy few escaped with their Lives or Souls Had all Churches continued in the Liberty wherein they were placed and left by our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles it is possible that many Irregularities might have prevailed in some of them and many mistakes been admitted in their practice Yet this monster of the Mass devouring the Souls of the most and drinking the blood of many had never been conceived nor brought forth at least not nourished into that terrible form and Power wherein it appeared and acted for many Ages in the World And upon the account thereof it is not without cause that the Jews say that the Christians received their Tephilloth or Prayer-books from Armillus that is Antichrist It is true that when the Doctrine of Religion is determined and established by civil Laws the Laws of the Nation where it is professed as the Rule of all outward Advantages Liturgies composed in compliance therewithal are not so subject to this mischief But this ariseth from that external cause alone Otherwise where ever those who have the ordering of these things do deviate from the Truth once received as it is common for the most so to do Forms of Prayers answerable unto those deviations would quickly be insinuated And the present various Liturgies that are amongst the several sorts of Christians in the World are of little other use than to establish their minds in their peculiar Errors which by this means they adhere unto as Articles of their Faith And hereby did God suffer contempt to be cast upon the supposed Wisdom of men about his Worship and the ways of it They would not trust unto his Institutions and his Care of them but did first put the Ark into a Cart and then like Uzzah put forth a hand of force to hold it when it seemed to shake For it is certain that if not the first Invention yet the first publick Recommendation and prescription of devised Forms of Prayer unto the practice of the Churches were designed to prevent the insinuation of false opinions and corrupt Modes of Worship into the publick Administrations This was feared from Persons infected with Heresy that might creep into their Ministry So the Orthodox and the Arians composed Prayers Hymns and Doxologies the one against the other inserting in them passages confirming their own profession and condemning that of their Adversaries Now however this Invention might be approved whilest it kept within bounds yet it proved the Trojan Horse that brought in all evils into the City of God in its Belly For he who was then at work in the Mystery of Iniquity laid hold on the Engine and occasion to corrupt those Prayers which by the constitution of them who had obtained Power in them the Churches were obliged and confined unto And this took place effectually in the constitution of the Worship of the second Race of Christians or the Nations that were converted unto the Christian Faith after they had destroyed the Western Roman Empire To speak briefly and plainly it was by this means alone namely of the necessary Use of devised Forms of Prayer in the Assemblies of the Church and of them alone that the Mass with its Transubstantiation and Sacrifice and all the Idolatrous Worship wherewith they were accompanied were introduced until the World inflamed with those Idols drench'd it self in the bloud of the Saints and Martyrs of Christ for their Testimony against those abominations And if it had been sooner discovered that no Church was intrusted with Power from Christ to frame and impose such devised Forms of Worship as are not warranted by the Scripture innumerable Evils might have been prevented For that there were no Liturgies composed no imposed Use of them in the Primitive
Churches for some ages is demonstratively proved with the very same arguments whereby we prove that they had neither the Mass nor the use of Images in their Worship For besides the utter silence of them in the Apostolical writings and those of the next ensuing Ages which is sufficient to discard their pretence unto any such Antiquity there are such descriptions given of the practice of the Churches in their Worship as are inconsistent with them and exclusive of them besides they give such a new Face of Divine Worship so different from the portraicture of it delivered in the Scripture as is hardly reconcileable thereunto and so not quickly embraced in the Church I do not say that this fatal Consequence of the Introduction of humanely devised set Forms of Prayer in the Worship of the Church in the horrible abuse made of it is sufficient to condemn them as absolutely unlawful For where the Opinions leading unto such Idolatrous practices are openly rejected and condemned as was before intimated there all the Causes Means and Occasions of that Idolatry may be taken out of them and separate from them as it is in the Liturgies of the Reformed Churches whether imposed or left free But it is sufficient to lay in the Balance against that veneration which their general observance in many ages may invite or procure And it is so also to warrant the Disciples of Christ to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith he hath made them free Another Evil which either accompanied or closely followed on the Introduction of devised Forms of Prayer into the Church was a supposed necessity of adorning the Observance of them with sundry Arbitrary Ceremonies And this also in the End as is confessed among all Protestants encreased Superstition in its Worship with various practices leading unto Idolatry It is evident that the Use of free Prayer in Church Administrations can admit of no Ceremonies but such as are either of Divine Institution or are natural circumstances of the actions wherein the Duties of Worship do materially consist Divine Institution and Natural Light are the Rules of all that order and Decency which is needful unto it But when these devised Forms were introduced with a supposition of their necessity and sole use in the Church in all acts of immediate Worship men quickly sound that it was needful to set them off with Adventitious ornaments Hereon there was gradually sound out and prescribed unto constant Observation so many outward Postures and Gestures with Attires Musick Bowings Cringes Crossings Venerations Censings Altars Images Crucifixes Responds Alternatives and such a rabble of other Ceremonies as rendred the whole worship of the Church ludicrous burdensome and superstitions And hereon it came to pass that he who is to officiate in Divine Service is obliged to learn and practise so many turnings and windings of himself Eastward and Westward to the Altar to the Wall to the People So many Gestures and postures in kneeling rising Standings Bowings less and profound secret and loud speakings in a due Observance of the Interposition of Crossings with Removals from one place to another with provision of Attires in their variety of Colours and respect to all the Furniture of their Altars as are difficult to learn and foolishly antick in their practice above all the preparations of Players for the Stage Injunctions for these and the like observances are the subject of the Rubrick of the Missal and the Cautels of the Mass. That these things have not only no Affinity with the purity simplicity and Spiritualty of Evangelical Worship but were invented utterly to exclude it out of the Church and the minds of men needs no proof unto any who ever read the Scripture with due consideration Nor is the Office of the Ministery less corrupted and destroyed by it For besides a soâ—â—y Cunning in this practice and the reading of some Forms of words in an accommodation unto these Rites there was little more besides an easy good Intention to do what he doth and not the quite contrary required to make any one Man or Woman as it once at least fell out to administer in all sacred Worship Having utterly lost the Spirit of Grace and Supplications neglecting at best all his Aids and Assistances and being void of all Experience in their minds of the Power and Efficacy of Prayer by vertue of them they found it necessary by these means to set off and recommend their dead Forms For the lifeless Carcass of their Forms merely alone were no more meet to be esteemed Prayer than a Tree or a Log was to be esteemed a God before it was shaped fashioned gilded and adorned By this means they taught the Image of Prayer which they had made to speak and act a Part to the satisfaction of the spectators For the bare reading of a Form of Words especially as it was Ordered in an unknown Tongue could never have given the least contentment unto the multitude had it not been set off with this variety of Ceremonies composed to make an Appearance of Devotion and sacred Veneration Yet when they had done their utmost they could never equal the Ceremonies and Rites of the Old Temple-worship in Beauty Glory and Order nor yet those of the Heathen in their sacred Eleusinian Mysteries for number solemnity gravity and appearance of Devotion Rejecting the true Glory of Gospel-Worship which the Apostle expresly declares to consist in the Administration of the Spirit they substituted that in the room thereof which debased the profession of Christian Religion beneath that of the Jews and Pagans especially considering that the most of their Ceremonies were borrowed of them or stollen from them But I shall never believe that their conversion of the Holy Prayers of the Church by an open contempt of the whole Work of the Spirit of God in them into a Theatrical Pompous Observance of ludicrous Rites and Ceremonies can give so much as present satisfaction unto any who are not given up to strong Delusions to believe a Lye The Exercise of ingrafted prevalent Superstition will appease a natural conscience outward Forms and Representations of things believed will please the Fancy and exercise the Imagination variety and frequent changes of modes gestures and postures with a sort of Prayer always beginning and always ending will entertain present thoughts and outward senses so as that men finding themselves by these means greatly affected may suppose that they pray very well when they do nothing less For Prayer consisting in an holy Exercise of Faith Love Trust and Delight in God acting themselves in the Representation of our Wills and Desires unto him through the Aid and Assistance of the Holy Ghost may be absent where all these are most effectually present This also produced all the pretended ornaments of their Temples Chapels and Oratories by Crucifixes Images a multiplication of Altars with Reliques Tapers Vestments and other Utensils None of these Things whereby Christian Religion is corrupted and debased
5. 2. Luk. 2. 52. Acts 4. 33. And sometimes for the free effectual Efficacy of Grace in those in whom it is Acts 14. 26. 1 Cor. 15. 10. 2 Cor. 11. 9. And sometimes for our Justification and Salvation by the free Grace or favour of God in Christ John 1. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 13. For the Gospel it self as the instrument of the declaration and communication of the Grace of God 2 Cor. 6. 1. Eph. 3. 2. Col. 1. 6. Tit. 2. 11. For the free donation of the Grace and gifts of the Spirit John 1. 16. Eph. 4. 7. And many other significations it hath which belong not unto our purpose Three things may be intended in this adjunct of Grace 1. A respect of the Soveraign Cause of his Dispensation which is no other but the mere Grace of God He may be called a Spirit of Grace because his donation is an effect of Grace without the least respect unto any desert in those unto whom he is given This Reason of the Appellation is declared Titus 3 4 5 6. The sole cause and reason in opposition unto our own works or deservings of the pouring out of the Spirit upon us is the Love and Kindness of God in Jesus Christ whence he may be justly called a Spirit of Grace 2. Because he is the Author of all Grace in and unto them on whom he is poured out So God is called the God of all Grace because he is the Fountain and Author of it And that the Holy Spirit is the immediate efficient cause of all Grace in us hath been elsewhere proved both in general and in the principal instances of Regeneration and Sanctification and it shall be yet further confirmed in what doth ensue 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is commonly used for that Grace or Favour which one hath with another Let me find grace in thy sight as in the instances before-quoted And so the Spirit also may be called a Spirit of Grace because those on whom he is poured out have Grace and Favour with God they are gracious with him as being accepted in the beloved Eph. 2. 18. Whereas therefore all these concur where-ever this Spirit is communicated I know no reason why we may not judge them all here included though that in the second place be especially intended The Spirit is promised to work Grace and Holiness in all on whom he is bestowed He is as thus poured out a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Supplications that is of Prayer for Grace and mercy The word is formed from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the other to be gracious or merciful and expressing our Act towards God it is Prayer for Grace Supplication And the original word is never used but to express vocal prayer either in the Assemblies of the people of God or by private persons Harken to the voice of my Supplications is rendred by the Apostle Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5. 7. in which place alone in the Scripture that word is used Originally it signifies a Bough or Olive branch wrapt about with Wooll or Bays or something of the like nature which those carried in their hands and lifted up who were Suppliants unto others for the obtaining of Peace or the averting of their Displeasure Hence came the phrase of velamenta praeferre to hold out such covered branches So Livy de Bel. Punic Ramas oleae ac velamenta alia Supplicantium portantes orant ut reciperent sese Holding forth Olive branches and other covered tokens used by Suppliants they prayed that they might be received into Grace and Favour Which custome Virgil declares in his Aeneas addressing himself to Evander Optime Grajugenum cui me fortuna precari Et vitta comptos voluit praetendere Ramos And they called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Branches of Supplication or Prayer And they constantly called those Prayers which they made solemnly unto their gods Supplicia and Supplicationes Liv. lib. 10. Eo anno multa prodigia erant quarum avertendarum causa Supplicationes in biduum Senatus decrevit A form of which kind of Prayer we have in Cato de re rustica cap 13. Mars pater te precor quaesoque ut calamitates Some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Miserationes or Lamentationes and interpret it of mens bemoaning themselves in their Prayers for Grace and Mercy which in the issue varies not from the sense insisted on But whereas it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be merciful or gracious and expresses an act of ours towards God it can properly signifie nothing but Supplications for Mercy and Grace Nor is it otherwise used in the Scripture See Job 40. 21. Prov. 18. 23. Dan. 9. 3. Jer. 31. 60. 2 Chron. 6. 21. Jer. 3. 21. Psal. 28. 2 6. 31 23. 116. 1. 130. 2. 140. 7. 143. 1. Dan. 9. 18. 25. Psal. 46. 6. which are all the places besides this where the word is used in all which it denotes deprecation of Evil and Supplication for Grace constantly in the plural Number to denote the Earnestness of Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are properly Supplications for Grace and Mercy in freedom and deliverance from Evil but by a Synecdoche for all sorts of Prayer whatever We may therefore enquire in what sense the Holy Spirit of God is called a Spirit of Supplication or what is the Reason of this Attribution unto him And he must be so either formally or efficiently either because he is so in himself or unto us If in the former way then he is a Spirit who himself prayeth and according to the import of those Hebraisms aboundeth in that Duty As a man of wickedness Isaiah 55. 7. or a man of Blood is a man wholly given to wickedness and violence So on the other hand a Spirit of Supplication should be a Spirit abounding in Prayer for Mercy and the diverting of evil as the word imports Now the Holy Ghost cannot be thus a Spirit of Supplication neither for himself nor us No Imagination of any such thing can be admitted with respect unto himself without the highest Blasphemy Nor can he in his own Person make Supplications for us For besides that any such Interposition in Heaven on our behalf is in the Scripture wholly confined unto the Priestly Office of Christ and his Intercession all Prayer whether Oral or Interpretative only is the Act of a nature inferiour unto that which is prayed unto This the Spirit of God hath not he hath no Nature inferiour unto that which is Divine We cannot therefore suppose him to be formally a Spirit of Supplication unless we deny his Deity He is therefore so Efficiently with respect unto us and as such he is promised unto us Our enquiry therefore in General is how or in what sense he is so And there are but two ways conceivable whereby this may be affirmed of him 1. By working Gracious Inclinations and dispositions in us unto this Duty 2. By giving
themselves in our Supplications are innumerable And there is nothing so excellent in its self so useful unto us so acceptable unto God in the matter of Prayer but it may be vitiated corrupted and Prayer it self rendred vain by an Application of it unto false or mistaken Ends. And what is the Work of the Spirit to guide us herein we shall see in its proper place CHAP. V. The Work of the Holy Spirit as to the matter of Prayer THese things are considerable as to the matter of Prayer and with respect unto them of our selves we know not what we should pray for nor how nor when And the first Work of the Spirit of God as a Spirit of Supplication in Believers is to give them an understanding of all their wants and of the supplies of Grace and Mercy in the Promises causing a sense of them to dwell and abide on their minds as that according unto their measure they are continually furnished with the matter of Prayer without which men never pray and by which in some sense they pray always For 1. He alone doth and he alone is able to give us such an understanding of our own wants as that we may be able to make our thoughts about them known unto God in Prayer and Supplication And what is said concerning our wants is so likewise with respect unto the whole matter of Prayer whereby we give Glory to God either in Requests or Prayers And this I shall manifest in some instances whereunto others may be reduced 1. The Principal matter of our Prayer concerneth Faith and Unbelief So the Apostles prayed in a particular manner Lord increase our Faith and so the poor man prayed in his distress Lord help thou my unbelief I cannot think that they ever pray aright who never pray for the pardon of Unbelief for the removal of it and for the encrease of Faith If Unbelief be the greatest of Sins and if Faith be the greatest of the Gifts of God we are not Christians if those things are not one principal part of the matter of our Prayers Unto this end we must be convinced of the nature and guilt of Unbelief as also of the nature and use of Faith nor without that conviction do we either know our own chiefest wants or what to pray for as we ought And that this is the especial Work of the Holy Ghost our Saviour expresly declares John 16. 9. He convinceth the World of Sin because they believe not on him I do and must deny that any one is or can be convinced of the nature and guilt of that Unbelief either in the whole or in the remainder of it which the Gospel condemneth and which is the great condemning Sin under the Gospel without an especial Work of the Holy Ghost on his mind and Soul For Unbelief as it respecteth Jesus Christ not believing in him or not believing in him as we ought is a Sin against the Gospel and it is by the Gospel alone that we may be convinced of it and that as it is the ministration of the Spirit Wherefore neither the Light of a natural Conscience nor the Law will convince any one of the guilt of Unbelief with respect unto Jesus Christ nor instruct them in the nature of Faith in him No innate Notions of our Minds no Doctrines of the Law will reach hereunto And to think to teach men to pray or to help them out in praying without a sense of Unbelief or the remainders of it in its Guilt and Power the nature of Faith with its necessity use and efficacy is to say unto the naked and the hungry be ye warmed and filled and not give them those things that are needful to the Body This therefore belongs unto the Work of the Spirit as a Spirit of Supplication And let men tear and tire themselves Night and Day with a multitude of Prayers if a Work of the Spirit of God in teaching the nature and Guilt of Unbelief the nature efficacy and use of Faith in Christ Jesus go not with it all will be lost and perish And yet it is marvellous to consider how little mention of these things occurreth in most of those compositions which have been published to be used as Forms of Prayer They are generally omitted in such endeavours as if they were things wherein Christians were very little concerned The Gospel positively and frequently determines the present Acceptation of men with God or their Disobedience with their future Salvation and Condemnation according unto their Faith or Unbelief For their Obedience or Disobedience are infallible consequents thereon Now if things that are of the greatest Importance unto us and whereon all other things wherein our spiritual Estate is concerned do depend be not a part of the subject matter of our daily Prayer I know not what deserveth so to be Secondly The matter of our Prayer respects the Depravation of our natures and our wants on that account The Darkness and Ignorance that is in our Understandings our unacquaintedness with heavenly things and Alienation from the Life of God thereby the secret workings of the Lusts of the mind under the shades and Covert of this darkness the stubbornness obstinacy and perverseness of our Wills by nature with their reluctancies unto and dislike of things spiritual with innumerable latent guiles thence arising all keeping the Soul from a due conformity unto the Holiness of God are things which Believers have an especial regard unto in their Confessions and Supplications They know this to be their Duty and find by experience that the greatest concernment between God and their Souls as to Sin and Holiness do lye in these things And they are never more jealous over themselves than when they find their Hearts least affected with them And to give over treating with God about them for Mercy in their pardon for Grace in their removal and the daily Renovation of the Image of God in them thereby is to renounce all Religion and all designs of living unto God Wherefore without a knowledge a sense a due comprehension of these things no man can pray as he ought because he is unacquainted with the matter of Prayer and knows not what to pray for But this knowledge we cannot attain of our selves Nature is so corrupted as not to understand its own depravation Hence some absolutely deny this Corruption of it so taking away all necessity of labouring after its cure and the Renovation of the Image of God in us And hereby they overthrow the Prayers of all Believers which the Antient Church continually pressed the Pelagians withal Without a sense of these things I must profess I understand not how any man can pray And this knowledge as was said we have not of our selves Nature is blind and cannot see them it is proud and will not own them stupid and is senseless of them It is the Work of the Spirit of God alone to give us a due conviction of a spiritual insight