were recorded would never the more prove the use unlawful For where do they leave any record of singing Psalms in Rime and Meeter and other forms of worship which yet are thought lawful Indeed this is the Antisabbatarians argument If the seventh day was sanctified from the creation then the celebration and keeping of it by the Patriarchs before the giving of the Law would have been recorded But they have been answered by these Authors Brethren in non-conformity That many things may have been done which are not recorded For all this they add Yet we doubt not but we may use it in the form and so put it to an use for which God never intended it Their Reasons are 1. Because it is holy Scripture But I would fain know a reason why a form of words which are not holy Scripture may not as lawfully be used as those which are 〈…〉 sure all the phrases or forms of speech which are used in extempore Prayers are not holy Scripture 2. Because say they it is so short that we may easily get it by heart and not employ our souls at our eyes by reading while they should be wrestling with God It seems then that whatsoever they said before though there be no precept or pattern in the Word of God yet a man may use a set form of Prayer if it be so short that it may be easily remembred and that one thing which they have against the Common-prayer is that it cannot be remembred but must be read But I answer that the reading of the Common-prayer which they disallow is not such a diversion of the soul from wrestling with God as the remembring of the Lords Prayer the use whereof without book they allow I never knew a man in reading of a Prayer frequently to skip what he intended to say but I have been told of a man and that of very great parts who never offered to say the Lords Prayer in publick but he was out The employing of the soul at the eye in reading is nothing so much as her employment in that part of the brain which is the shop of memory since the characters imprinted on the book are not so easily obliterated and defaced as those instamped on the brain Let any man tell me whether his thoughts be not lesse roving from the subject while he is reading a book which he remembers not then while he is remembring a speech got by heart or whether the soul be not put to more labour by saying it memoriter then by reading it in a plain print 3. They say that they can use the Lords Prayer because the divine authority of it is such as it hath another manner of influence on their spirits in using as all the Scripture hath then can be pretended for any other forms But if they mean by this divine Authority they speak of a divine institution this cannot be pleaded by them except they will grant that Christ appointed us to use these words in prayer which before they denyed and therefore I think that not to be their meaning If by this divine authority they allow to the Lords Prayer they understand only that the form of words came out of the divine Mint not excogitated by man but dictated by the Spirit of God then the same influence may be expected from some other forms being of divine authority as well as the Lords Prayer as those in the Liturgy O Lord open our Lips save thy people blesse thine inheritance But if the Reason wherefore they can lawfully utter the Lord Prayer before God be the divine authority of it then something at least tantamount to divine authority must be found in the Prayers which they invent themselves that they think it lawful to vent them For it seems if the Lords Prayer were not of divine authority they would not use it By the same Reason they would not use their own Prayers if they were not of divine authority or were not endowed with something of an equivalent credit with divine authority But now their own Prayers are not of divine authority therefore without doubt the Authors believe some excellency to be in them which renders them as good and lawful as if they were And what is that but clearly the extempore uttering of them This is laid in the scales with divine authority and out-ballanceth it too as will appear by these two cases compared together These Authors would not use the Lords Prayer so as to utter the expresse words if it were not of divine authority but because it is of divine authority therefore they will In like manner these Authors would not utter those words which usually they do in prayer besides the Lords Prayer if they were not invented extempore but dictated by another or by themselves before-hand but because they are invented extempore therefore they will So that you see extempore invention is as much preferred before divine authority as their own invented prayers are inferiour to the Lords Prayer And now no marvel though men stickle so much for the liberty of the extempore vein for so did Alexander for divine honours How otherwise shall they be deified by the people If you take away the divine authority of their Prayers they may complain with Micah What have we more 4. They give this as their last Reason wherefore though they cannot use other forms yet the Lords Prayer they can Because say they By the length of it we easily understand that it was never intended to be used without any other Prayer But that which they easily understand will not enter into the head of a rigid Non conformist whom I know who while he stayed in his place was wont very often to begin at Church with the Lords Prayer and to joyn no other Prayer with it Yet if they were all of as easie a conception as these Authors and agreed in the premises that the Lords Prayer was never intended to be used alone yet how doth the conclusion follow thence that therefore the Lords Prayer may be used though not the Common Prayer By this Reason they might more lawfully use the Common Prayer if they might be suffered to joyn their extempore Prayers with it But who can conceive that it should be lawful to use a set form so that it be in company with some other Prayers of their own framing and yet it should be unlawful to use it alone For that Prayer which is bad when alone can make no better a sound among a pack of good ones then a Goose among Swans But it seems they compare forms of prayer as the Wag did the Committee men to Fidlers as if they were Rogues when single but in consort with extempore Prayers were Gentlemen-Musicians SECT V. Their pretence that no Forms were in use till four hundred years after Christ answered Their Arguments from the uselesness of Forms from the Heresies Persecutions and separations which they cause and from peoples resting in them considered and retorted THeir
more of Petitions then of Thanksgivings and some of them are expresly called so in their Titles Yet he appoints these Prayers to be uttered by others liâ—â—ting the persons that officiate not only in the sense and matter but in the phrase and form yea not only in the tune but tone prescribing the instruments wherewith they are to be sung Indeed the Authors take notice of this Instance and gather from it a clean contrary conclusion We cannot but think that the holy Psalmists variety of Prayers none of which as to words and phrases agre per omnia with another sheuld rather teach us when we go to God in prayer that we should rather take unto us words de novo as God shall put them into our hearts c. Mark the argumentation the fore-mentioned Prayers were to be prayed over and over again in the same words Ergo we should in every Prayer take words de novo Indeed the variety they speak of shews that they did not use only one form of prayer but the Liturgy is so far from confining us to one that the greatest offence that some take at it is that there are so many Prayers for the same things in divers phrases Thus some will be pleased neither full nor fasting I might add to this Instance of Davids Psalms another in the Propnet Hosea chap. 14. v. 2. Take with you words and turn unto the Lord and say unto him c. and another in Joel 2.17 Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord c. It is frivolous to object that this is the old Testaments Directory themselves I believe laugh at such a conceit in the Antinomians Yea they argue for their own purpose from the variety of phrase in these Prayers as hath been noted But if any require a new Testament example or command we probably have both I am sure one For Acts 4.24 we have a president which in probability without any stretching will come home to our case For we find there a whole company of the Primitive Christans in consort with the Apostles themselves lifting up their voyce with one accord and saying a Prayer which is there registered in its terms If it be said that the form was not composed before-hand but that they all lighted upon the same words by inspiration this is more then any man knows however it will justifie the joyning of voyces as well as hearts in prayer Beside this probable example we have a particular precept for the use of one form Luke 11.2 When you pray say Our Father c. as will better appear in its proper place where I shall cite their own words in the 55. page of their book We doubt not but we may use it in the form For bâ— this Reason of theirs under consideration they might not use it except they had a command for it in the Word of God The next thing to be observed is that Periphasis wherewith they would disparge the use of Forms calling it a borrowing of words from others hardly fitted to their hearts or present necessities Whether the Liturgy be fitted to their hearts I cannot tell because I know not their hearts But if their hearts be as they should be the Prayers there cannot but be fitted to their hearts the matter of the petitions being only such things as every Englishman should desire But if they would have every man utter that in prayer which is set upon his own heart as the phrase is whether reasonably or unreasonably there would be mad work And I wonder how the said Prayers should not be fitted to their necessities since they ask all good things Indeed some men have more necessities then others and the Liturgy will not fit them which no doubt did much help to bring it into discredit because it would not serve on fast-dayes in the late wars to beg those victories which were accounted the one thing necessary by some men And yet were it granted that it did not fit the heart and necessities of the Minister so well as a Prayer of his own invention yet possibly it may better fit the peoples and a Minister is to accommodate both his Prayers and Sermons rather to his peoples hearts and necessities then his own For unlesse he be like one of Jeroboams Priests if he should preach upon those points which sometimes are most material to be pressed on himself and in that way which is most effectual and prevalent upon his own more learned Soul it would have but small successe among the most of his hearers They conclude the Chapter to this purpose in many words too long to be here inserted That if stinted forms be allowed for some that canneâ— pray otherwise yet it is not lawful much lesse necessary for their sakes to restrain the abilities of those others that can As for the lawfulnesse of restraining a gift when such a restraint is judged useful I have proved it before As for the necessity of it to some end intended it will appear in three cases 1. In case uniformity is aimed at If the Captain will have his Souldiers keep their ranks he must forbid the sound to out-march the lame 2. In case liberty granted to some to do that which they have a gift for will provoke others which have it not to imitate them beyond their ability Thus the way to make mean men not to wear gold lace to the empoverishing of their estates is for great men to leave it of And thus the way to keep weak Ministers from extemporising beyond their power is for more able men to use the Common-prayer For if the denyal of liberty to some who have the gift for the sakes of those their brethren which have it not be to cut the man fit for the bed the granting such a liberty will be to stretch a man fit for the bed that I may retort the Authors similitude Now since both will needs lie together it is more equitable that the tall man pull up his legs then that the low man be put on the Rack 3. In case liberty given to an Officer to do something he hath a gift for and the denial of that liberty to another Officer of the same society which hath no such ability but cannot be spared any more then the former would make the weaker Officer contemptible and uselesse especially if he be the weaker only in that particular but the stronger in others In our case one Minister having spent more time in hearing the Sermons and Prayers of others or brought up from his childhood to make his Prayers himself or living among people which applaud extempore Prayers and so excite his invention hath got the knack of such Prayers but by this reason is not so well studied so solid and judicious nor so able to contrive a discourse upon premeditation Another having been taught from his childhood to pray by a
that while the Authors labour to extricate themselves out of the stringent nooses of their Opposites retortion they have only more intricatly involved and entangled themselves It is time now to proceed in my animadversions to the next Paragraph of their Chapter under debate in which they explain their fore-cited Reason in other words and enlarge it with one consideration not hinted by them before viz that there be other forms of prayer to be had beside those used by Idolaters Their words are these exactly Prayer is a piece of Gospel-sacrifice and by a Rational act of our souls to be offered to God Now whether it be lawful for us when the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof whereas God hath given us an ability to speak words in another form to take-those very forms and to offer them up to God in true Gospel-worship which have been offered in an idolatrous service though the matter of those forms be not idolatrous is to us a great doubt nor can we be satisfied in the lawfulness of it This affectation of using diversity of phrase from the Papists I never saw pleaded for before but have often observed to be practised to my sorrow For some men labouring to get far enough from the Papists in their Dialect have spoken like Turks in point of mans will and like Gnosticks and Libertines in point of good works But the true Catholick Christian can approve a good saying whoever be the speaker and will behave himself to the Papists as Seneca to the Epicureans who though he was a Stoick confesseth he borrowed many things from Epicurus and gives this reason because he could call truth his own though he found it in the enemies camp and under the enemies colours The true Shibboleth which must distinguish a true Catholick from a Papist and all other Hereticks is not words and phrases tones countenances habits and gestures by which characters Popery is usually defined and distinguished among us but it is a greater Humility Charity and Freedom of spirit And that the Papists and other Hereticks may see that we differ from them and place the difference of our Religion in these excellent uncontrovertible and most material points I with with all my heart that our language and phrase were as like to theirs as truly and lawfully may be provided we still retain our Christian liberty of varying from them For if the words and forms of prayer which they use be in themselves true and good it is not their using them which can make them unlawful notwithstanding what I have newly quoted to the contrary For what though prayer be a piece of Gospel sacrifice c. so are our bodies so are our estates and both to be offered to God by a rational act of our souls Suppose then that my right knee hath bowed to an Idol upon my conversion must not I bow to the true God with that knee seeing I have another but only with my left Surely I should use that knee to chuse in Gods worship which had been defiled in the service of Idols Again in point of Alms which is no lesse a piece of Gospel-sacrifice to be offered to God by a rational act of our souls then prayer is may not a man give that money to the poor which he knoweth hath been offered to a false God or to the true God in an idolatrous service When the Temples of the Pagans were in many places demolished might not the Emperour as well yea much better have given the gold and silver that was found there consecrated to Idols unto the poor then have employed it about the use of his Pallace or the affairs of State But since I see this Reason on foot I lesse wonder that those who had the Revenues of the Church so long in their hands did so little good with them May be they thought that they had been offered to an Idol before and therefore ought not to be given to the true God but to be called Nehushtan and condemned to the base service of their belly I shall conclude my notes on the last quoted passage with one more Instance of common practice which I hope the Authors themselves allow of though it be vertually condemned by the Reason which they alledge Who the Authors of the Book are I know not nor what their way is But I am sure others of their mind in point of non-conformity will use some sentences of the Common-prayer in their extempore Prayers as â—hat Gods service is perfect freedom and the like Now if a whole Prayer be defiled by the Papists use of it every part of it must be so defiled If they say that they use no Sentences in their prayers which have been used by Idolaters in theirs excepting such as are agreeable to the Scriptures I must require them to shew what sentence of a Prayer in the Liturgy is not agreeable to the Scriptures and when they have shewn that I yield them the cause But their present reason argues against the lawfulnesse of using such forms of words which themselves confesse are for the matter of them true and agreeable to the Scriptures SECT V. Their Argument from 1 Cor. 10. about Meats offered to Idols answered Several Reasons why Forms of prayer cannot be liable to those pollutions which those meats were THese confessed absurdities following from their assertion let us now see upon what grounds it is built to which end I shall here transcribe their next words The ground of our scruple is in that known Text 1 Cor. 10. where the Apostle treateth concerning the lawfulnesse of eating meats that had been once offered to Idols He determines as to a double case 1. That it is not lawful to eat such meats in an Idols Temple 2. In case it be sold in the shambles and we know it not he determines that we may buy and eat it But in case our Brother saith unto us This hath been offered to an Idol he saith eat it not so that our Brothers scandal upon such a foundation is to be avoided by us He gives the Reason because there is other meat to eat The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof Here they interweave an Argument from scandal with that they have been so long upon drawn from the unlawfulnesse of offering that to God which had been offered to Idols I shall consider the case of scandal by it self in the next Chapter For they are two Arguments though the Authors observing its likely the weaknesse of each of them confound them together in these words But I shall distinguish them in my answer since if neither of them is of force singly they cannot be of force conjunctly For if the Common-prayer may not be used because it hath been polluted by the known use of it in an idolatrous service as they have spent a whole leaf to prove already without mentioning scandal then it were a sin to use it though no man took offence at it and to
his voyce the higher to make amends for the frivolousnesse of that which he produced of whom one of the hearers said This Minister will be hot in spight of his matter Now this kind of fervency being only the tumult of the bodily spirits is not much to be reckoned of as depending much upon age temper and the weather it self The aged and grown Christian hath the least of it whose devotion in respect of stilnesse and quietnesse comes nearer to that of the soul in state of separation The basenesse of this kind of fervour is excellently displayed by that holy and learned Doctor Henry More in his divine Poem of the Life of the Soul in the description of Glaucis And if any man would be better informed of the naturall Reasons of such heats and fervours let him consult Doctor Casaubon of Enthusiasme SECT VIII The Ministers Reason why unpremeditated Prayers beget intention answered The Mind is not abstracted from all Created Objects in them The advantage of the Prints and Characters in a Book in order to the easie bringing of the Idea's into the head The disadvantages to the Hearers by extempore Prayers The Soul dictates to the Tongue in Forms I Would not willingly passe over any thing in the Book which I oppose that hath any shew of Patronage to the cause maintained therein and am careful to answer every allegation under that head to which it doth most properly appertain And therefore remembring that page 28. this Reason is given wherefore the mind may be more intent in unpremeditated Prayers viz. Because the Soul is more abstracted from all created objects then it can be while a great piece of the work is to look on the Book to see what to say next I think this the most proper place for a reply My Answer is this Every man that is an expert reader especially in reading that which he hath read often in a fair print doth probably find that he heeds the characters little or not at all but minds the sense or something else Nor is the Soul necessarily more abstracted from all created objects in extempore Prayers then it may be in reading a Prayer out of a Book The created objects which are met with in a Book are the Prints and Characters in the Book But he that prayes without book especially with vocal prayer must needs look upon the like prints and stamps made in the Brain or whatsoever things the species are without which a man can neither speak nor think they must needs be created objects The very Idea of a God being a Creature in the opinion of all that are not Plato's Schollers as I suppose the Authors are not And the legible signes in the Book do serve to bring the inward phantasmes more readily into actual view and to marshall them with lesse labour diversion and disturbance That which they say next We do believe this may be experienced by any persons speaking to a man for his life comes not at all into my Creed But whatever advantages extempore prayers have to fix and inflame the spirit of the Minister that which he should most aim at in Publick is to affect his hearers And those things which most affect him do many times least affect them not being able to understand what he doth understand nor to follow him at the first hearing through a long-winded sentence He that writes never so deliberately and slowly in the review sees cause to alter many things for perspicuity sake and much more may a sudden Speaker labour under such obscurity since an Hearer hath not that time and other advantages of finding out the sense which a Reader hath Therefore the main thing to be considered is not the Ministers own experience of what alterations he finds in himself by these two ways of Praying but which is best for the People They give their Opinion upon that Question in these words Nor can we believe that any Minister praying in any form useth so rational and experimented a means to affect his hearers hearts as he that useth none As in preaching there is a certain lively efficacy of the voice which every hearer discerneth more in the Ministers speaking ex animo then from his reading a Sermon I know not what others discern I should think extempore Sermons made by the most able Preachers much inferior to the preprared ones of much worse Preachers I have been more affected with a Sermon read then remembred And when the Minister reads his Sermon I expect a good one But let us see the Reason why they believe otherwise Because the Speaker himself is discernibly not so much affected in reading as in speaking To make up this Reason it must be supposed that he who appears affected himself in speaking is most likely to affect others which is true if other advantages be equal as if he be as clear as rational and otherwise perswasive but not else except among men but a small degree above bruits who are more convinced by a strained voice then a sober Reason and take every knock on the Pulpit for an Argument Besides I have known some as discernibly affected in reading the Common-Prayer as others are in their extempore Prayers However I think it not much worth a Ministers labour to raise such affections in his People that are not founded upon the truth and reason of what he asserts but only on the boldnesse confidence and eagerness of the Assertion I wish some course might be taken to prevent such affections rather then promote them For such Persons that are so easily passive under a loud voice or other Symptoms of the the Speakers affection will hardly be able to withstand the assaults of a bawling Quaker whereas a wise man is so far from being affected with a noise without Reason or with Reason for the noises sake for it is all one that nothing is more nauseous to him then to hear that stoutly inculcated which is but weakly demonstrated The Authors add but one more Note upon this Point of the expediency of extempore Prayers and it is this in the Chapter under animadversion Sect. 4. Speaking is an immediate act of the tongue but commanded by the soul The tongue is but the souls Organ by which it exerciseth that Power which God hath given it and it cannot be so well performed as when the soul that directs performs its work by dictating immediatly to it So that much of the life and spirit of Prayer is lost in praying by forms How comes this conclusion in when there was no such thing as forms in the Premisses I have but one shift to understand the Argument and that is by supposing that the soul performs not its work by dictating immediatly to the tongue in forms which is so plain a falfity that I am loth to suppose it And I cannot imagine what moved these men to assert it unless it be this that the words which a man utters in using a form are dictated by
a Book That is true by the Book mediatly but not immtdiatly as they say The Words are first in the Book but they are conceived by the soul and thence dictated before they be uttered by the tongue Indeed after much study for their meaning I fancy at length that they intend a greater Emphasis in the word directs then I was aware of If so possibly this may be their import That the same person who contrives the form of a Prayer is most likely to utter it to the best advantage which would be true if he could contrive as well while he speaks as before he speaks because himself best knows the weight of his own words but not else SECT IX The fifth branch of their first Argument viz. 'T is disputable whether it be lawful since there is no precept or president for it in the word answered 1. Disputable actions are lawfull when commanded 2. Few Actions are indisputable Non-conformity is not 3. We may do what we have neither precept nor example for 4. There are General commands for the use of Forms and Particular are not necessary proved from the Ministers own words and deeds 5. There are Particular commands and examples of Forms in Scripture Their Objection that the Liturgy is not fitted to their necessities answered Three Reasons for the restraining of those in some cases who can pray otherwise I proceed now to the fifth and last branch of their first reason contained in the eigth chapter of their book The Paragraph begins thus Nay lastly to add no more if there were nothing else in the case we should think it very disputable whether it be lawful for us in the publick worship of God especially as to the momentous acts and parts of it to do that for which we have no command in the Word no President or example To which objection I have ready no lesse then four answers and the Reader may take which he pleaseth for that which will not satisfie one man will another 1. First What though the lawfulness of such actions be disputable they may not therefore be done when commanded I have proved the contrary Sect. 2. Besides what I said there I add now another consideration Such is the diversity of the principles which men go by that there are but few actions that are not disputable By this Reason the Authors have confuted their own non-conformity For it s certainly a a disputable point since many good and learned men have actually disputed it to the satisfaction of many Readers of the same stamp and their Arguments have never been answered by their Adversaries For all they write is no answer till they undertake Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity in the full body and Dr. Sandersons Sermons with the Prefaces thereof 2. Secondly I have already proved that it is lawful in the publick worship of God yea in the momentous acts and parts thereof to do that which we have no command President or example for in Scripture as in an Oath c. 3. Thirdly There is a General command for forms of prayer when they are imposed by the Magistrate For we are enjoyned in Scripture to obey our Rulers when they command such things as Gods word nowhere forbids and such things are Forms in our Case As for a particular command or example in Scripture it is not requisite by the Authors own concessions which they make both in their deeds and words For if you observe their deeds they praise God in prescribed forms made by Hopkins and Stâ—rnhold whereas Praise being a part of Prayer there is the same Reason for extempore Hymns as extempore Petitions Again when they visit the sick they annoint him not with Oil And yet they shall be so far from producing a command for such a visitation in Scripture that they shall find the contrary in Saint James If they say there is not the same Reason for that annointing now which was then I reply Neither is there the same Reason for unpremeditated prayers now as was then For now forms are commanded by the Rulers but according to the Authors opinion they were not then But because it is usual with men to say one thing and do another condemning themselves in that which they allow May be this giving of the Question which we find in their deeds will seem to be of less weight see therefore how they grant it in their words too Pag. 73. Sect. 9. where they give more then I ask at this time For I contend only for the lawfulness of doing things which are not particularly commanded but there they grant the lawfulness of imposing such things freely allowing the Magistrate a Power to command us to keep the statutes and commandments of God and besides that to do three things 1. To command as in the circumstances relating to divine Worship to do those things which are generally commanded in the word of God Now a Form of Prayer is doubtless but a circumstance of Prayer and I have proved that if the Magistrate thinks them convenient Forms are generally commanded in Scripture 2. To appoint time and place Now if he can appoint a time which he thinks most convenient though otherwise it would be less convenient and so of place I would fain know a reason why he may not appoint a Form which he thinks most expedient though possibly otherwise it would be lesse expedient And to appoint to begin at such a time or to end at such a time is as really a limitation of the Spirit as to appoint a Form 3. To appoint such circumstances without which the worship of God in the judgement of ordinary reason must be indecently and disorderly performed Now this ordinary Reason which they speak of must be either the reason of the Magistrate or the reason of the people or both or neither of them but that reason which is best whether of the one or the other If they mean the reason of the people then the sense is that the Magistrate hath power to appoint such things as the subjects judge reasonable and we thank them for nothing if both we thank them for as much if they mean that reason which is best without restraining it to any subject I reply That reason in the Idea doth nothing but only as it is some bodies reason The best reason hath influence on no mans actions any further then it is apprehended as best And except the Magistate hath power to command what he apprehendeth most agreeable to the best reason he must command what the subjects apprehend so or else he must command nothing at all Therefore it remaineth that the reason which is to judge what is undecent is the reason of the Magistrate and if he command such things as be undecent so that they be not otherwise unlawful the people must submit by the Authors own concessions 4. Fourthly There are particular commands and examples in Scripture for forms of Prayer For Davids Psalms are Prayers many of them consist