A23636:114
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession…
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pennsylvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.
printed by Richard Pierce, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Introduction › Reflections on Chapt. 4th. of Ministerial Gifts &c.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sect. 8. Having routed the Ministers (in his arrogant Opinion) now to pulling down the Ordinances: and good reason they should go together: and here (because Preaching is ipso facto cashiered with the Preacher) he only levels his Canon against Praying & Singing without Inspiration: and that both public & private. and,
Sect. 8. Having routed the Ministers (in his arrogant Opinion) now to pulling down the Ordinances: and good reason they should go together: and here (because Preaching is ipso facto cashier'd with the Preacher) he only levels his Canon against Praying & Singing without Inspiration: and that both publick & private. and,
1. For Prayer, he sends a Challenge to produce one Instance in Scripture, where P•aying without the Spirit is commanded. We discover his Dilemma, and shall avoid the Horn: If being commanded to pray without the Spirit be taken in sensu Composito, i. e. to live content in a Graceless, Spiritless state, and yet pray; or to rest in our natural Alities without seeking the Aids of the Spirit of God; we believe there's no such Command in the Word of God: But if it be taken in sensu Diviso, i. e. that aswell men without the Spirit, as such as have the Spirit are under a Command to pray, we affirm it, & can give both Proof and Instance for it. ⟨p. 56⟩Prayer is a moral Duty, and Want of Grace dischargeth none from moral Obligations; for if it did, none of the apostate Race of Adam would come under Condemnation. That Simon Magus had not the Spirit, or saving Grace, we are sure, and yet Peter commands him to pray for Grace and Conversion. He is also much mistaken in saying, Do they not grant that all the prayers recorded in Scripture proceeded from Divine Inspiration and Revelation? We never granted it, never will. The Scriptures themselves were written by Inspiration; but all the things there written of were not so. Abraham prayed for Ishmael, by a natural affection sanctified: and Paul's Praying thrice against his thorn, was from a Sense of the Affliction, and a Religious Persuasion that he was to go to God as Him who only could help him, which he knew without Inspiration.