Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

for an extraordinary pang of zeal; and were it unusual, it would take exceedingly. But the better any thing is, the more loathsome it appeareth when it is mortified by hypocrisy and dead formality, and turned into a mockery, or an affected, scenical act. But it is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the words, that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore.

7. Those that would have private men pray and prophesy in public, as warranted by 1 Cor. xiv. "Ye may all speak, &c." do much contradict themselves, if they say also that a layman may say nothing but Amen.

8. The people were all to say amen in Deut. xxvii. 15, 16. 18-20, &c. And yet they oftentimes said more. As Exod. xix. 8. in as solemn an assembly as any of ours, when God himself gave Moses a sermon (in a form of words) to preach to the people, and Moses had repeated it as from the Lord, (it being the narrative of his mercies, the command of obedience, and the promises of his great blessings upon that condition,)" all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The like was done again, Exod. xxiv. 3. And Deut. v. 27. And lest you should think either that the assembly was not so solemn as ours, or that it was not well done of the people to say more than amen, God himself who was present declared his approbation, even of the words when the speaker's hearts were not so sincere in speaking them as they ought; ver. 28, 29. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me, and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people-They have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such a heart in

66

them

[ocr errors]

Object. But this is but a speech to Moses and not to God.'

Answ. I will recite to you a form of prayer which the people themselves were to make publicly to God; Deut. xxvi. 13—15. “Then shalt thou say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of my house, and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the stranger, to the fatherless and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me : I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have

[ocr errors]

I forgotten them. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead; but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey." Is not here a full form of prayer to be used by all the people? And remember that Joseph and Mary, and Christ himself were under this law, and that you never read that Christ found fault with the people's speech, nor spake a word to restrain it in his churches.

[ocr errors]

In Lev. ix. 24. "When all the people saw the glory of the Lord, and the fire that came out from it, and consumed the burnt offering, they shouted and fell on their faces:" which was an acclamation more than bare amen.

2 Kings xxiii. 2, 3. "King Josiah went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, &c. And the priests and the prophets, and all the people both small and great; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant: and the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, &c. with all their heart, and all their soul, &c. and all the people stood to the covenant?" Where as a king is the speaker, it is like that the people used some words to express their consent.

1 Chron. xvi. 35, 36. When David delivered a psalm for a form of praise: in which it is said to the people, ver. 35. "And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord." Where it is like that their praising the Lord was more than their amen.

All

And it is a command, Psal. lxvii. 3. 5. "Let all the people praise thee O God, let all the people praise thee." And he that will limit this to single persons, or say that it must not be vocally in the church, or it must be only in metre, and never in prose, or only in tunes and not without, must prove it, lest he be proved an adder to God's Word.

But it would be tedious to recite all the repeated sentences in the psalms, which are commonly supposed to be the responses of the people, repeated by them. And in Rev. xiv. 2, 3. the voice as "of many waters and as of a great thunder, and the voice of harpers harping with their harps, who sung a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders, a song which none could learn but the hundred forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth, which were not defiled with women, who were virgins and followed the Lamb," &c. doth seem very plainly to be spoken of the praises of all the saints. Chap. xvii. 15. by waters is meant people, multitudes, &c. And chap. xix. 5—8. there is expressly recited a form of praise for all the people, "A voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her it was granted, &c."

And indeed he that hath stiled all his people " priests to God and a holy and royal priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, and to shew forth the praises, 'ra's apɛras', the virtues, of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light," doth seem not to take them for so profane a generation, as to be prohibited from speaking to God in public any otherwise than by the mouth of a priest.

And it seemeth to be more allowed (and not less) under the Gospel, than under the law; because then the people as under guilt were kept at a greater distance from God, and must speak to him more by a priest that was a type of Christ our intercessor1. But now we are brought nigh, and reconciled to God, and have the spirit of sons, and may go by Christ alone unto the Father. And therefore though it be true that ministers yet are sub-intercessors under Christ our high priest, yet they are rarely called priests, but desExod. xx. Heb. iv. 16, 17. Eph. ii. 13. Heb.

1 Numb. i. 54. iii. 10. 38. xii. 18. 21-23.

cribed more in the New Testament by other parts of their office.

Object. But the people's responses make a confused noise in the assemblies, not intelligible.'

Answ. All things are ill done, that are done by ill men that carnally and formally slubber it over: but if the best and holiest people would unanimously set themselves to do it, as they do in singing psalms, so that they did not only stand by to be the hearers of others, it would be done more orderly and spiritually as well as singing is.

Quest. LXXXIV. Is it not a sin for our clerks to make themselves the mouth of the people, who are no ordained ministers of Christ?

Answ. 1. In those places where ordained deacons do it, this objection hath no place. 2. The clerks are not appointed to be the mouth of the people, but only each clerk is one of the people commanded to do that which all should do, lest it should be wholly left undone. If all the congregation will speak all that the clerk doth, it will answer the primary desire of the church-governors, who bid the people do it but if they that will not do it themselves, shall pretend that the clerk doth usurp the ministry, because he ceaseth not as well as they; they might as well say so by a few that should sing psalms in the church, when the rest are against it and forbear. May not a man do his duty in singing or saying, when you refuse yours, without pretending to be your mouth, or usurping the ministry?

Quest. LXXXV. Are repetitions of the same words in church prayers, lawful?

Answ. 1. It is not lawful to affect them as the heathens, who think they shall be heard for their battology, or saying over the same words, as if God were moved by them as by a charm. 2. Nor is it lawful to do that which hath a strong appearance of such a conceit, and thereby to make God's worship ridiculous and contemptible; as the Papists in their psalters, and prayer books, repeating over the name of Je

m Matt. vi. 18.

sus, and Mary so oft together as maketh it seem a ludicrous canting.

But, 1. It is lawful to speak the same words from fulness and fervency of zeal; 2. And when we are afraid to give over lest we have not yet prevailed with God. 3. And in God's solemn praises (sung or said) a word or sentence oft repeated sometimes hath an elegancy, and affecting decency; and therefore it is so often used in the psalms; yea, and in many Scripture prayers. 4. In such cases, to bring a serious urgency of spirit to the repeated words, and not to quarrel with the repetitions, is the duty of one that joineth with true Christian assemblies, as a son of piety and peace".

Quest. LXXXVI. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus?

Answ. The question either respecteth the person of Jesus, named by any of his names, or else this name 'Jesus' only. And that either simply in itself considered; or else comparatively as excluding, or not including other names.

1. That the person of Jesus is to be bowed to, I never knew a Christian deny.

2. That we may lawfully express our reverence by bowing, when the names, 'God,'' Jehovah,' 'Jesus,' ' Christ,' &c., are uttered, I have met with few Christians who deny, nor know I any reason to deny it.

3. Had I been fit to have prescribed directions to other ministers or churches, I would not have persuaded, much less commanded them to bow at the name of Jesus, any more than at the name of God, Jehovah, Christ, &c., for for many reasons which the reader may imagine, though I will not now mention them.

4. But if I live and join in a church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the name of Jesus, and where my not doing it would be divisive, scandalous or offensive, I will bow at the name of God, Jehovah, Jesus, Christ, Lord, &c., one as well as the other; seeing it is not bowing at Christ's name that I scruple, but the consequents of seeming to distinguish or prefer that name alone before all the rest".

[blocks in formation]

• Mic. vi. 6. Jer. xxiii. 27. Isa. lii. 5, 6. xxix. 24. xlii. 8, 9. Psal. ii.

« ZurückWeiter »