26. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER Preface to the reader.

IT is altogether needless to premise anything here concerning the necessity, benefit, and use of prayer in general. All men will readily acknowledge that without it, there can be no religion at all. So too, the life and exercise of all religion principally consists in this. Therefore, that way and profession in religion which gives the best directions for prayer, with the most effectual motives for it, and which most abounds in its observance, has an advantage in this over all others. Hence it also follows that all errors which either pervert its nature, or countenance the neglect of a due attendance to it, are pernicious in religion. And so, differences in opinion, and disputes about any of its vital concerns, can only be a dangerous and evil consequence of such errors. For on each hand, these pretend to an immediate regulation of Christian practice in a matter of the highest importance to the glory of God, and to the salvation of the souls of men. And thus, there is nothing more requisite in our religion than to have true apprehensions of prayer’s nature and use be preserved in the minds of men. The declaration and defense of these, when they are opposed or unduly maligned, is not only justifiable, but also necessary. This is the design of the ensuing discourse. In the Scripture, there is a promise that the Holy Ghost would be given to the church as "a Spirit of grace and of supplications." Zechariah 12:10 As such, particular operations are ascribed to him. Mention is likewise frequently made of the aids and assistances which he affords to believers in and to their prayers. Hence they are said to "pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Ephesians 6:18 Some profess that they have experienced the lack of these aids and assistances to enable them to pray according to the mind of God; and also of their efficacy to that end, when these aids are indeed received. Accordingly, these persons regulate themselves in this whole duty, in the expectation or improvement of such aids. And there are those who, being accommodated to the same purpose by other aids of another nature — which they consider sufficient for themselves — look at the former testimony, and plead that the ability to pray by the aids and assistances of the Holy Spirit, is a mere empty pretense. And in the management of these different apprehensions, those who are at variance seem to be almost barbarians to one another — the one not being able to understand what the other vehemently affirms. For they are determined in their minds, not merely by notions of truth and falsehood, but by the experience which they have of the things themselves, a sense and understanding of which they can by no means communicate to one another. For just as the spiritual experience of truth is above all other demonstrations to those who enjoy it, so it cannot be made an argument for enlightening and convicting others. Hence those who plead for prayer by virtue of supplies of gifts and grace from the Holy Spirit, wonder that the use or necessity of them in this should be contradicted. Nor can they understand what others intend, who seem to deny that it is every man’s duty in all his circumstances, to pray as well as he can, and to make use of the assistance of the Spirit of God in doing so. And by "prayer" they mean that which the most eminent and only proper meaning of the word denotes; namely, vocal prayer. Some, on the other side, are so far from understanding these things, or having a conviction of their reality, that they despise and reproach their pretense with the highest confidence. To "pray in the Spirit" is used as a notable expression of scorn, the thing signified being considered foolish and contemptible.

Moreover, in such cases as this, men are apt to run into excesses in things and ways which they judge are expedient, either to countenance their own opinions, or to depress and decry the opinions of others with whom they differ. No instances can be given in this kind of greater extravagances, than in that under consideration. For it is from this that some ascribe the origin of free prayer among us, by the assistance of the Spirit of God, to the Jesuits, as an invention of theirs. This is no doubt to make them the authors of the Bible. And others avow that all forms of prayer used among us in public worship, are mere traductions333 from the Roman Breviaries and Missal.334 But these things will be spoken to afterward. They are mentioned here only to evince the use of a sedate inquiry into the truth or the mind of God in this matter; which is the design of the ensuing discourse.

What should principally guide us in the management of this inquiry is that it be done for spiritual advantage and edification, without strife or contention. Now, this cannot be done without a diligent and constant attendance to the two sole rules of judgment in this — namely, Scripture revelation, and the experience of those who believe. For experience is to be regulated by the Scripture; and where this is so, it is a safe rule for those in whom it is experienced. And in this case, as face reflects face in water, so Scripture revelation and spiritual experience reflect one another. All other reasonings, from customs, traditions, and feigned consequences, are of no use here. The inquiries before us concern the nature of the work of the Holy Spirit in the aids and assistances which he gives to believers in and for their prayers, according to the mind of God. And also, what the effects and fruits of his work are, or what the spiritual abilities are which are communicated to them by it. Antecedent to this, it should be inquired whether there is indeed any such thing or not; or whether they are only vainly pretended to by some who are deceived. But because the determination of this depends absolutely on the foregoing inquiries, it may be handled jointly with them, and it needs no distinct consideration. The one who would not deceive nor be deceived in his inquiry about these things, must diligently attend to the two forementioned rules, of Scripture testimony and experience; he has no other safe guides. Yet it will also be granted that much direction may be given for understanding those testimonies and examining that experience, from the light of nature. This is where this duty springs from, in which it is founded, and from which it cannot vary as to its essence. Direction also springs from generally-received principles of religion suited to it, with the uncorrupted practice of the church of God in former ages.

Therefore, the foundation of the whole ensuing discourse is laid in the consideration and exposition of some of those texts of Scripture in which these things are expressly revealed and proposed to us. For to assert them all would be endless. We principally labor in this, as that by which not only must the controversy be finally determined, but the persons who manage it be eternally judged. What is added concerning the experience of those who believe the truth in this, claims no more for its argument (for those who do not have that experience) than it has evidence proceeding from and suited to those divine testimonies. But because the things that belong to it are of great moment to those who enjoy it, because it contains the principal acts, ways, and means of our intercourse and communion with God by Christ Jesus, they are somewhat at large, and on all occasions, insisted on here for the edification of those whose concern lies only in the practice of the duty itself.

Therefore, unless it can be proved that the testimonies of the Scripture produced and insisted on do not contain that sense and understanding which the words determinately express (for only that is pleaded), or that some have not experienced the truth and power of that sense of them, enabling them to live to God in this duty accordingly, all other contests about this matter are vain and useless.

Yet there is no such work of the Holy Spirit pleaded in this, that is absolutely inconsistent with or condemnatory of all those outward aids of prayer by set composed forms, which are made use of almost everywhere. For this device is ancient; and it is generally received in the Christian world in some degree or measure (though in many things, a no less general apostasy from the rule of truth, at the same time and in the same persons and places, cannot be denied). Therefore, I will not judge what advantage formal prayer may be or has been to the souls of men; nor what acceptance they have found in this, where it is not abused too much. The substance of what we plead from Scripture and experience is only this: That because God has graciously promised his Holy Spirit as a Spirit of grace and supplications to those who believe, enabling them to pray according to his mind and will in all the circumstances and capacities in which they are or may be called to, it is the duty of those who are enlightened with the truth of this, to expect those promised aids and assistances in and for their prayers, and to pray according to the ability which they receive thereby. To deny that this is their duty, or to deprive them of their liberty to discharge it on all occasions, rises up in direct opposition to the divine instruction of the sacred word. But moreover, as intimated before, there are some generally-allowed principles which, though not always duly considered, cannot at any time be modestly denied. They give direction for the right performance of our duty in this, which are these that follow:

1. It is the duty of every man to pray for himself. The light of nature, multiple divine commands, with our necessary dependence on God and subjection to him, give life and light to this principle. To own a Divine Being, is to own that which is to be prayed to, and it is our duty to do so.335

2. It is the duty of some, by virtue of a natural relation or office, to pray with and for others also. Thus it is the duty of parents and masters of families336 to pray with and for their children and households. This also derives from those great principles of natural light that God is to be worshipped in all societies of his own erection, and that those in the relationships mentioned are obliged to seek the highest good of those who are committed to their care; and so it is frequently enjoined in the Scripture. In like manner, it is the duty of ministers to pray with and for their flocks, by virtue of special institution. These things cannot be nor are they questioned by any, so far as I know of. But practically, most men live in open neglect of their duty in this. If it were but diligently attended to, from the first instance of natural and moral relationships to the instituted offices of ministers and public teachers, we would have fewer contests about the nature and manner of praying than we have at present. It is holy practice that must reconcile differences in religion, or they will never be reconciled in this world.

3. Everyone who prays, either by himself and for himself, or with others and for them, is obliged as to all the uses, properties, and circumstances of prayer, to pray as well as he is able. For by the light of nature, everyone is obliged in all instances to serve God with his best. The confirmation and exemplification of this, was one end of the institution of sacrifices under the Old Testament. For it was ordained in them that the chief and best of everything was to be offered to God. Neither the nature of God nor our own duty towards him will allow us to expect any acceptance with him, unless our design is to serve him with the best that we have, both for matter and manner. So the mind of God himself is declared in the prophet: "If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? You brought what was torn, and the lame, and the sick: should I accept this from your hand? says the Lord. But cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices to the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen," Malachi 1:8; Malachi 1:13-14.

4. In our reasonable service, the best with which we can serve God consists in the intense, sincere actings of the faculties and affections of our minds, according to their respective powers, through the use of the best assistances we can attain. And if we omit or forego the exercise of them, in any instance, according to the utmost of our present ability, we offer to God the sick and the lame. If men can take it on themselves, in the sight of God, that the invention and use of set forms of prayer (and other similar outward modes of divine worship) are the best he has endowed them with for his service, they are free from the force of this consideration.

5. There is no man who, in the use of the aids which God has prepared for that purpose, is not able to pray according to the will of God, and as he is obliged by duty, whether he prays by himself and for himself, or with others and for them also. Perfection is not attainable by these means in the performance of any duty, nor can all attain the same measure and degree as to the usefulness of prayer and manner of praying. But everyone may attain that in which he will be accepted with God, and according to the duty to which he is obliged, whether personally or by virtue of any relation in which he stands to others. To suppose that God requires duties of men which they cannot perform in an acceptable manner, by virtue and in the use of those aids which he has prepared and promised to that end, is to reflect dishonor on His goodness and wisdom in his commands. Therefore, no man is obliged to pray in any circumstances, by virtue of any relation or office, unless he is able to do so according to what is required of him. And what he is not able to do, he is not called to.

6. We are expressly commanded to pray, but we are nowhere commanded to make [i.e., write] prayers for ourselves, much less for others. This is superadded for a supposed convenience to the light of nature and Scripture institution.

7. There is assistance promised to believers to enable them to pray according to the will of God; but there is no assistance promised to enable anyone to make prayers for others. The former part of this assertion is explained and proved in the ensuing discourse, and the latter cannot be disproved. If it were granted that the work of composing prayers for others is a good work, falling under the general aids of the Holy Spirit necessary for every good work whatever, those are still not aids of the same kind and nature as his actual assistances in and for prayer, as he is the Spirit of grace and supplications. For in the use of those assistances by grace and gifts, every man who uses them actually prays; nor are they otherwise to be used. But men do not pray in making and composing forms of prayer, though they may do so in reading them afterward.

8. Whatever forms of prayer were given for the use of the church by divine authority and inspiration, such as the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms or Prayers of David, they are to have their everlasting use in this, according to what they were designed for. Whatever their end and use, they can give no more warranty for human compositions to the same end, nor for the injunction of their use, than there is for other human writings to be added to the Scripture.

These and like principles, which are evident in their own light and truth, will be of use to direct us in the argument in hand, so far as our present design is concerned in this. For it is the vindication of our own principles and practice that is principally designed, and not an opposition to those of other men. Therefore, as intimated before, neither these principles nor the divine testimonies which we will more largely insist on, are engaged to condemn all use of set forms of prayers as sinful in themselves, or absolutely unlawful, or as vitiating the worship of God so as to render it wholly unacceptable in those who choose to so worship him. For God will accept those who sincerely seek him, even though, through invincible ignorance, they mistake in various things as to the way and manner of his worship. How far this rule may extend as to particular instances of miscarriage, only God knows, and whatever they pretend, no man knows. And where any believers worship God in Christ with an evident holy fear and sincerity, and walk in a way of life that corresponds to the rule of the gospel, even though they have manifold corruptions in the way of their worship, I will never judge severely either about their present acceptance with God, or their future eternal condition. This is a safe rule with respect to others. Our own rule is to attend with all diligence to what God has revealed concerning his worship, and to absolutely comply with it. Without this, we can neither please him nor come to the enjoyment of him.

I also acknowledge that the general prevalence in Christian assemblies of set forms of prayer of human invention, used for many ages (more than any other argument that is urged for their necessity), requires a tenderness in judgment as to their whole nature, and the acceptance of those by whom they are used in the duty of prayer. Yet, seeing that it is not warranted by the Scriptures, nor by apostolic example, nor countenanced by the practice of the primitive churches, no consideration of this usage ought to hinder us from discerning and judging the evils and inconveniences that have ensued from it; nor from discovering how far they are unwarrantable as to their imposition. And these evils may be considered a little here. The beginnings of the introduction of set forms of prayer of human composition into the worship of the church, are altogether uncertain. But it is known to all that their reception was progressive, by new additions from time to time. For neither Rome nor the present Roman Missal was built in a day. In that Missal, and in the Breviaries, the whole worship of the church issued, at least in these parts of the world. No man is so foolish as to suppose that they were of one entire composition, the work of one age, of one man, or any assembly of men at the same time, unless they are so brutishly devout as to suppose that the Mass-book was brought from heaven to the pope by an angel, as the Koran was brought to Mohammed. It is evident, indeed, that common people, at least of the communion of the papal church, believe it to be as much of a divine origin as the Scripture. And that is on the same grounds of its proposal to them by their church, as the only means of divine worship. Hence it is an idol to them. But it is well enough known how from small beginnings, by various accessions, it increased to its present form and station. And this progress — in the reception of devised forms of prayer in the worship of the church — carried along with it various pernicious concomitants, which we may briefly consider:

First, in and by the additions made to the first received forms, the superstitious and corrupt doctrines of the apostasy in several ages, were insinuated into the worship of the church. It is acknowledged by all Protestants, and it is sufficiently known, that such superstitious and corrupt doctrines were gradually introduced into the church. Its supposition is the sole foundation of the Reformation. And by this artifice of new additions to received forms, they were from time to time admitted into and stated in the worship of the church — by which to this very day, they principally preserve their station in the minds of men. If that foundation of them was taken away, they would quickly fall to the ground. By this means, those abominations of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass both leavened and poisoned the whole worship of the public assemblies, and imposed themselves on the credulity of the people. The superstitious and subtle disputes about these things by speculative men would never have infected the minds of the common people of Christians, nor would it ever have been the means of that idolatry which at length spread itself over the whole visible church of these parts of the world, if this device of prescribed forms of prayer, had not been imposed by them on their practice. In these forms, those abominations were not only expressed, but graphically represented and acted on (thus violently affecting the carnal minds of superstitious and ignorant men), which gradually hardened them with an obdurate credulity. For though they saw no doctrinal ground or reason to believe what was proposed to them about transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass, and might easily have seen that they were contradictory to all the conductive principles of men and Christians — namely, faith, reason, and sense — yet they deceived themselves into an obstinate pretense of believing in the notion of the truth of what they had admitted in practice. Men, I say, of corrupt minds might have disputed long enough about vagrant forms, cause without subjects, transmutation of substances without cause, bloody and unbloody sacrifice, before they had vitiated the whole worship of the church with gross idolatry, if this engine had not been made use of for its introduction, and if the minds of men not been inveigled337 by this means with its practice. But when the whole matter and its means were gradually insinuated into, and at length comprised in, those forms of prayer which they were obliged to continually use in divine service, their whole soul became leavened and tainted with a confidence in and love for these abominations.

Hence the doctrines concerning the sacraments, and the whole worship of God in the church, became gradually corrupted. They 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 nature). But they were gradually insinuated into their practice by additional forms of prayer, which they considered themselves obliged to use and observe. This was the gilding of the poisonous pill, whose operation (when it was swallowed) was to bereave men of their sense, reason, and faith, and make them madly avow to be true, what was contrary to them all.

Besides, as intimated before, the things themselves that were the groundwork of idolatry — namely, transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass — were so acted out and represented in those forms of worship, as to make a 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, and excited by outward spectacles, they will make mad work in the world, as they have done, and continue to do. But I will speak of this in the next place.

It would therefore have been utterly impossible for idolatrous worship to be introduced into the church in general, if the opinion of the necessity of devised forms of prayer had not first been universally received. Or at least, it would not have been so introduced and 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, that fatal engine of the church’s ruin was brought in, from whose murderous efficacy few escaped with their lives or souls. If all churches had continued in the liberty in which they were placed and left by our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles, it is still possible that many irregularities might have prevailed in some of them, and many mistakes been admitted into their practice — yet this monster of the mass, devouring the souls of most, and drinking the blood of many, would never have been conceived or brought forth. At least it would not have been nourished into that terrible form and power in which it appeared and acted for many ages in the world. And on account of this, it is not without cause that the Jews say the Christians received their Tephilloth, or Prayer-books, from Armillus — that is, Antichrist.338

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 with it are not as subject to this mischief; but this arises from that external cause alone. Otherwise, wherever those who have the ordering of these things, deviate from the truth once received (as it is common for most to do), forms of prayers corresponding to those deviations would quickly be insinuated. And the present various liturgies that are among the several sorts of Christians in the world, are of little use other than to establish their minds in their particular errors, which they adhere to by this means, as articles of their faith.

Hereby God allowed contempt to be cast upon the supposed wisdom of men, about his worship and its ways. They would not trust to his institutions and his care of them, but first put the ark into a cart and then, like Uzzah, they put out a hand of force to hold it when it seemed to shake. For it is certain that, if not the first invention, then the first public recommendation and prescription of devised forms of prayer for the practice of the churches, were designed to prevent the insinuation of false opinions and corrupt modes of worship into the public administrations of it. This was feared from persons infected with heresy who might creep into the ministry. So the orthodox and the Arians composed prayers, hymns, and doxologies, one against the other, inserting passages in them confirming their own profession, and condemning that of their adversaries. Now, however this invention might be approved while it kept within bounds, it proved to be the Trojan horse that, in its belly, brought all evils into the city of God. For the one who was then at work in the mystery of iniquity, laid hold on the engine and occasion, to corrupt those prayers which the churches were obliged and confined to, by the constitution of those who had obtained power in them. This took place effectively in the constitution of the worship of the second race of Christians, or the nations that were converted to the Christian faith after they destroyed the western Roman empire.339 To speak briefly and plainly, it was by this means alone — namely, by the necessary use of devised forms of prayer in the assemblies of the church, and by them alone — that the mass, with its transubstantiation and sacrifice, and all the idolatrous worship which accompanied them, were introduced. This continued until the world, inflamed with those idols, drenched itself in the blood of the saints and martyrs of Christ, for their testimony against these abominations. And if it had been discovered sooner that no church was entrusted with power from Christ to frame and impose such devised forms of worship, which are not warranted by the Scripture, innumerable evils might have been prevented. For there were no liturgies composed in the primitive churches, nor was their use imposed, for some ages. This is demonstratively proved with the very same arguments by which we prove that they had neither the mass nor the use of images in their worship. For besides the utter silence about them in the apostolic writings, and those of the next ensuing ages — which is sufficient to discard their pretense to any such antiquity — there are such descriptions given of the practice of the churches in their worship that are inconsistent with them, and exclusive of them. Besides, they give such a new face to divine worship, that is so different from the portraiture of it delivered in the Scripture, that it is hardly reconcilable to it, and so it was not quickly embraced in the church.

I do not say that this fatal consequence of introducing humanly-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 to such idolatrous practices are openly rejected and condemned, as intimated before, all the causes, means, and occasions of that idolatry may be taken out and separated 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 also sufficient to warrant the disciples of Christ to stand fast in the liberty with which he has made them free.

Another evil which either accompanied or closely followed the introduction of devised forms of prayer into the church, was a supposed necessity for adorning their observance with various arbitrary ceremonies. In the end, as confessed among all Protestants, this also increased superstition in its worship, with various practices leading to idolatry. It is evident that the use of free prayer in church administrations, can allow no ceremonies except those which are either of divine institution, or are natural circumstances of the actions in which the duties of worship materially consist. Divine institution and natural light are the rules of all that order and decency which is needful for it. But when these devised forms were introduced, with a supposition of their necessity, and for sole use in the church in all acts of immediate worship, men quickly found that it was needful to set them off with adventitious340 ornaments. Upon this, there were gradually discovered and prescribed for constant observation, so many outward postures and gestures — with attires, music, bowings, cringes, crossings, venerations, censings, altars, images, crucifixes, responds, alternatives, and such a rabble of other ceremonies — that it rendered the whole worship of the church ludicrous, burdensome, and superstitious. And upon this it came to pass that the one who is to officiate in divine service, is obliged to learn and practice 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, lesser and profound — secret and loud speakings, in a due observance of the interposition of crossings — with moving from one place to another — with provision for attires in their variety of colors, and with respect to all the furnishings of their altars — that these are difficult to learn, and foolishly antic in their practice, above all the preparations of the players for the stage. Injunctions for these and like observances are the subject of the rubric341 of the Missal and the cautels342 of the Mass. For any who ever read the Scripture with due consideration, no proof is needed that these things not only have no affinity with the purity, simplicity, and spirituality of evangelical worship, but they were invented to utterly exclude it from the church, and from the minds of men. Nor is the office of the ministry less corrupted and destroyed by it. For besides a sorry skill in this practice, and reading some forms of words to accommodate these rites, there was little more required for a minister than an easy good intention to do what he does (and not quite the contrary) to make any man or woman (at least as it once was)1 Corinthians 11:5 fit to administer in all sacred worship.

Having utterly lost the Spirit of grace and supplications, at best neglecting all His aids and assistances, and being void in their minds of all experience of the power and efficacy of prayer by virtue of them, they found it necessary by these means to set off and recommend their dead forms. For the lifeless carcass of their forms alone was no more fit to be esteemed prayer, than a tree or a log was fit 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 to the multitude, if it had 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,343 for number, solemnity, gravity, and appearance of devotion. Rejecting the true glory of gospel-worship, which the apostle expressly says consists in the "ministry of the Spirit,"2 Corinthians 3:8 they substituted this in its place. This debased the profession of Christian religion beneath that of the Jews and Pagans, especially considering that most of their ceremonies were borrowed or stolen from them. But I will never believe that their conversion of the holy prayers of the church, by an open contempt for 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 temporary satisfaction to any who are not given up to strong delusions to believe a lie. 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 them, will entertain present thoughts and outward senses — so that finding themselves greatly affected by these means, men may suppose that they pray very well, when they do nothing less well. Prayer consists in a holy exercise of faith, love, trust, and delight in God, acting in a representation of our wills and desires to Him, through the aid and assistance of the Holy Ghost; yet it may be absent, even where all these are most effectively present. This [devised formality] also produced all the pretended ornaments of their temples, chapels, and oratories, by crucifixes, images, multiple altars, with relics, tapers, vestments, and other utensils.

None of these things, by which Christian religion is corrupted and debased, would ever have come into the minds of men, if a necessity for their invention had not been introduced by establishing set forms of prayer, as the only way and means of divine worship. Wherever these are retained, proportionate to the principles of the doctrine which men profess, some such ceremonies must also be retained. I will not deny, therefore, that here lies the foundation of all our present differences about the manner of divine worship. Suppose a necessity for confining the solemn worship of the church to set forms of prayer, and I will grant that various rituals and ceremonies may be well judged as necessary to accompany their observance — for without them, they will quickly grow obsolete and unsatisfactory. If, on the other hand, free prayer is allowed in the church, it is evident that nothing but the grace and gifts of the Holy Ghost (with a due regard for the decency of natural circumstances) is required in divine service, or can be admitted in it. Nor is this consequent pleaded to prove that these ceremonies are unlawful either in themselves or in their use, however inseparable it seems from the sole public use of set forms of prayer in sacred administrations. The design of this consideration is only to show that in so far as they have been abused, and are subject to being abused, and always stand in need of being abused (that they may attain the ends aimed at), the plea for the necessity of their imposition is that much weakened.

There is also another evil that has attended their invention. The guides of the church, after a while, were not content to make use of humanly-devised forms of prayer, confining themselves to their use alone in all public administrations. But they judged it fit, moreover, to impose the same practice on all whom they considered to be under their power. At length they thought this was lawful — indeed, that it was necessary to do, upon ecclesiastical and civil penalties, and in the end, capital penalties. It is uncertain when this injunction was first prevalently entertained. For the first two or three centuries, there were no systems of composed forms of prayer used in any church whatever, as was proved. Afterward, when they began to be generally received on those grounds and for those reasons which I will not emphasize here (but I may do so afterward),344 the authority of some great persons recommended the use of their compositions to other churches, even those which had a mind to use them as they saw good. But as for this device of imposing them, confining churches not only to the necessary use of them in general, but to a certain composition and collection of them, we are beholden for all the advantage received by this, to the popes of Rome alone, among the churches of the second edition. For it began from their own good inclination, and by their own authority, without the advice of councils or pretense of traditions — the two Gorgons’ heads by which they frighten poor mortals in other cases, and turn them into stones. Then, by various degrees, they obtained a right to impose them, and did that accordingly. For when their use and benefit had been pleaded for a while, and progressed from there to their necessity, it was judged needful that they be imposed on all churches and Christians by their ecclesiastical authority. But when afterward they had insinuated into them, and lodged in their heart, the two great idols of transubstantiation and the unbloody sacrifice, not only personal and pecuniary mulcts,345 but capital punishments, were enacted and executed to enforce their observance. This brought fire and fagot346 into Christian religion, making havoc of the true church of Christ, and shedding the blood of thousands. For the martyrdom of all who have suffered death in the world for their testimony against the idolatries of the mass, derives originally from this spring alone: of the necessary imposition of complete liturgical forms of prayer. For this is the sole foundation of the Roman Breviary and Missal, which have been the Abaddons347 of the church of Christ in these parts of the world, and are ready to be so again. Take away this foundation, and they all fall to the ground. It is worth considering what kind of principle it is, which was naturally improved to such pernicious effects, and quickly found to be a fit and effectual engine in the hand of Satan to destroy and murder the servants of Christ.

If the churches of Christ had been left to their primitive liberty under the enjoined duties of reading and expounding the Scripture, of singing psalms to the praise of God, of administering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, and of diligently preaching the word — all of them with prayer, according to the abilities and spiritual gifts of those who presided in them (as it is evident they were for some ages) — it is impossible for any man to imagine what evils would have ensued from that, which might be of any consideration, in comparison to those enormous mischiefs which followed on the contrary practice. And as to all the inconveniences which, it is pretended, might ensue from this liberty, there is sufficient evangelical provision for their prevention or cure made in the gospel constitution, and in the communion of all the true churches of Christ. But this was not the whole of the evil that attended this imposition. For by this means, all spiritual, ministerial gifts were caused to cease in the church. For as these are talents given to trade with,348 or manifestations of the Spirit given to profit or edify the church, they will not reside in any subject, they will not abide in any who receive them, if they are not improved by continual exercise. We see every day what effects the contempt or neglect of them produces.

Therefore, their exercise being restrained and excluded by this imposition, they were utterly lost in the church. So that it was looked at as a rare thing for anyone to be able to pray in the administration of divine worship. Indeed, the pretense of such an ability was considered a crime, and its exercise was considered a sin scarcely to be pardoned. Yet I do not find in any of the ancient canons, that it was reckoned among the faults for which a bishop or a presbyter was to be deposed. But it is openly evident, in those who were called to officiate in public assemblies, as to the gifts which they had received for edifying the church in divine administrations, that on this imposition arose that neglect which has given a fatal wound to the light and holiness of the church. For when most men of that order had provision of prayers made for them, which they purchased at an easy rate, or had them provided for them at the charge of the people, they were content to be at rest, freed from that labor and travail of mind which are required for the constant exercise and improvement of spiritual gifts. This imposition was the grave in which they were buried. For at length, as manifested in what happened, our Lord Jesus Christ being provoked by their sloth and unbelief, withheld the communication of such gifts from most of those who officiated in divine worship. And hereby also, they lost one great evidence of the continuance of his mediatory life in heaven for the preservation of the church.

It is known that this was and is the state of things in the Roman church with reference to their whole worship in their public assemblies. And therefore, although they have indulged diverse enthusiasts, whose revelations and actings (pretended to be from the Holy Spirit) have tended to confirm their superstitions — and some of them have ventured at notions about mental prayer,349 which they do not understand themselves — yet as to free prayer by the assistance of the Holy Ghost, in the church assemblies or otherwise, they were the first, and continue to be the fiercest opposers of it. And it is their interest to be so. For shake this foundation of imposing an entire system of humanly-clerked prayers as the only way and means of the worship of the church, and the whole fabric of the mass, with all the weight of their religion which is laid on it (if vanity and imagination may be said to have any weight), will tumble into the pit from which it came. And therefore, here I must acquaint the reader, that the first occasion of writing this discourse was the perusal of Mr. Cressy’s preface to his Church History.350 Out of a design to advance the pretended mental prayer of some of his enthusiasts, he reflects with much contumely351 and reproach upon that free praying by the aids of the Spirit of God, which we plead for. He will find that all his pretenses are examined in the latter part of this discourse. But notwithstanding these things, those of the Roman church at this day, boast of their devotions in their prayers, private and public, and thereby have prevailed on many who are disposed to complying with them, by their own guilt, ignorance, and superstition. The vanity of their pretense has been well detected, by evincing the idolatry by which all or the most of their devotions are vitiated and rendered unacceptable. But this also carries weight with me: that the provision of the system and order of their whole devotion, and its exercise, are apparently composed and fitted to the exclusion of the whole work of the Spirit of God in prayer. And yet they continue under such an incredible delusion as to oppose, revile, and condemn the prayers of others who are not of their communion, on this consideration: that those who make them, do not have the Holy Spirit or his aids, which are all confined to their church! But if any society of men in the world, maintaining the outward profession of Christian religion, can do more than their church has done to exclude the Holy Ghost and all his operations in prayer and divine worship, I will acknowledge that I am greatly mistaken.

It is nothing but ignorance of the Spirit and of his whole work, with all the ends for which he is promised to the church (not a hatred and detestation of them) that causes any to embrace their ways of devotion. But to return. The things pleaded for, may be reduced to the ensuing heads:

1. No persons, no churches, are obliged by virtue of any divine constitution, precept, or approved example, to confine themselves to set or humanly-devised forms of prayer in their public or private worship. If any such constitution, precept, or example can be produced (which up to now has not been done) it ought to be complied with. And while others are left to their liberty in their use, this is sufficient to enervate352 all pleas for their imposition.

2. There is a promise in the Scripture, there are many promises, made and belonging to the church till the end of the world, of the communication of the Holy Spirit to it, as to particular aids and assistance in prayer.Ephesians 6:18 To deny this, is to overthrow the foundation of the holiness and comfort of all believers, and to bring present ruin to the souls of men in distress.

3. It is the duty of believers to look after, to pray for, those promised aids and assistances in prayer. Without this, all those promises are despised, and looked at as a flourish of words, without truth, power, or efficacy in them. But —

4. Believers are commanded to do this, and have blessed experience of success in this. The former is plain in the Scripture,353 and the latter must be left to their own testimony, living and dying.

5. Beyond the divine institution contained in the Scripture, of all the ordinances of worship in the church, with the determination of the matter and form which are essential to them, and a due attendance to natural light in outward circumstances, there is nothing further needful for the due and orderly celebration of all public worship in its assembly. If any such thing is pretended, it is what Christ never appointed, nor the apostles ever practiced, nor the first churches after them, nor does it have any promise of acceptance.

6. For the preservation of the unity of faith, and the communion of churches among themselves in this, they may express an agreement, as there is in doctrine by a joint confession of faith, so in a declaration of the material and substantial parts of worship, with the order and method of worship. On this foundation, they may communicate354 in all things with each other as churches, and in the practice of their members.

7. Because the differences about prayer under consideration concern Christian practice in the vitals of religion, great respect is to be had to the experience of those who believe, where it is not obstructed and clouded by prejudices, sloth, or adverse principles and opinions. Therefore, the substance of the greatest part of the ensuing discourse, consists principally in the declaration of those concerns about prayer which relate to practice and experience. And hence it follows —

8. The best expedient to compose these differences among us, is for each one to stir up the gift and grace of God that is in him, and all of us give ourselves to that diligence, frequency, fervency, and perseverance in prayer which God requires of us; especially in such a season as that in which we live. It is a time in which those (whoever they may be) who trouble others, may for all they know, be near to trouble themselves. This will be the most effectual means to lead us all to the acknowledgement of the truth, without which, an agreement in notions is of little use or value.

But, I confess, hopes are weak concerning the due application of this remedy to any of our evils or distempers. The opinions of those who deny all internal, real, efficacious operations of the Holy Spirit on the souls of men, and deride all their effects, have so far diffused and riveted themselves into the minds of many, that little is to be expected from a retreat to those aids and reliefs. This evil in the profession of religion was reserved for these latter ages. For although the work and grace of the Holy Spirit in divine worship was much neglected and lost in the world, no instances can be given in ages past of such contempt cast upon all His internal grace and operations, as now abounds in the world. If the Pelagians, who were most guilty, fell into any such excesses, they have escaped the records and monuments that remain of their deportment. They are bold efforts of atheistic inclinations in men, who openly avow their own ignorance and utter lack of all experience in spiritual and heavenly things. Nor is the person of Christ or his office better entertained among many; these have been treated with scurrility355 and blasphemy by some. In the meantime, the contests with churches about communion are great and fierce. But where these things are received and approved, those who do not live on a traditional faith, will not forsake Christ and the gospel, or renounce faith and experience, for the communion of any church in the world. But almost all flesh has corrupted its way. The power of religion and the experience of it in the souls of men being generally lost, its profession is of no great use, nor will it long abide. Indeed, multitudes all over the world seem to be weary of the religion which they profess, so far as it is pleaded to be of divine revelation (whether true or false), unless they gain great secular advantages by professing it. There is no greater pretense of a flourishing state in religion, than that of some churches of the Roman communion, especially one at this day. But if the account concerning it is true, which is given to us from among themselves, then it is not much to be gloried in. For set aside the multitude of atheists, scripturists, and avowed disbelievers of the supernatural mysteries of the gospel, and the herd that remains is not very considerable. Indeed, their present height seems to be on a precipice. They are influenced into a hatred and persecution of the truth, by a combination of men upholding themselves and their way by extravagant secular interests and advantages. It is known to all who consider these things, what inroads are being made every day in other places — with their bold opinions concerning the authority of Scripture and the demonstration of it, the person and office of Christ, the Holy Spirit and all his operations, with their advancement of a pretense of morality in opposition to evangelical grace in its nature and efficacy. The effects of this poison are revealed daily, in decays of piety, in the increase of immoralities of all sorts, and in the abounding of atrocious sins, thus exposing nations to the high displeasure of God. Yet the security of most in this state of things, proclaims itself in the various fruits of it. And it can never be sufficiently deplored.

One means of the preservation of the church, and its deliverance out of these evils, is a due attendance to the discharge of this duty of prayer, the declaration of its nature, with a vindication of the springs and causes from which it derives its efficacy. These are therefore attempted in the ensuing discourse. I hope, through the blessing of God, that it may be of some use to those whose minds are sincere in their inquiries after truth.