But yet to carry on the work in hand, let it be supposed that our Saviour did command that Form of Prayer out of such as were then customarily used among the Jews, which is false, and asserted without any colour of proof, also that he prescribed it as a Form to be Repeated by his Disciples, which we have shown many very eminently Learned men to deny; and that though he prescribed it as a Minister to the Judaical Church, and to his Disciples whilst Members of that Church, under the Economy of the old Testament, not having as yet received the Spirit and Gifts of the New, yet that he did it for the use and observance of his Disciples to the end of the World, and that not as to the objective regulation of their Prayers, but as to the repetition of the words; yet it doth not appear how from all these Concessions any Argument can be drawn to the Composition and Imposition of Liturgies, whose Rise and Nature we are enquiring after. For it is certain, that our Saviour gives this direction for the end which he intends in it, not primarily as to the Public Worship of the Assemblies of his Disciples, but as to the guidance of every individual Saint in his private Devotion, Matth. 6. 6, 8. Now from a Direction given unto private Persons, as to their private deportment in the Discharge of any Religious Duty, to argue unto a prescription of the whole Worship of God in public Assemblies, is not safe, But that we may hear the Argument drawn from this act of our Saviour speak out all that it hath to offer, let us add this also to the fore-mentioned Presumptions, that our Saviour hath Appointed and Ordained, that in the Assemblies of his Disciples in his Worship by him required, they who Administer in his Name in and to the Church, should repeat the words of this Prayer, though not peculiarly suited to any one of his Institutions, what will thence be construed to ensue? why then it is supposed that this will follow; that it is not only lawful, but the duty of some men to Compose other Forms, an hundred times as many, suited in their Judgment to the due Administration of all Ordinances of Worship in particular, imposing them on the Evangelical Administrators of those Ordinances, to be read by them, with a severe interdiction of ⟨p. 18⟩the use of any other Prayers in those Administrations, Bellarmine de Pont. Rom. lib. 4. cap. 16.
But yet to carry on the work in hand, let it be supposed that our Saviour did command that Form of Prayer out of such as were then customarily used among the Jews, which is false, and asserted without any colour of proof, also that he prescribed it as a Form to be Repeated by his Disciples, which we have shewn many very eminently Learned men to deny; and that though he prescribed it as a Minister to the Judaical Church, and to his Disciples whilst Members of that Church, under the Oeconomy of the old Testament, not having as yet received the Spirit and Gifts of the New, yet that he did it for the use and observance of his Disciples to the end of the World, and that not as to the objective regulation of their Prayers, but as to the repetition of the words; yet it doth not appear how from all these Concessions any Argument can be drawn to the Composition and Imposition of Liturgies, whose Rise and Nature we are enquiring after. For it is certain, that our Saviour gives this direction for the end which he intends in it, not primarily as to the Publick Worship of the Assemblies of his Disciples, but as to the guidance of every individual Saint in his private Devotion, Matth. 6. 6, 8. Now from a Direction given unto private Persons, as to their private deportment in the Discharge of any Religious Duty, to argue unto a prescription of the whole Worship of God in publick Assemblies, is not safe, But that we may hear the Argument drawn from this act of our Saviour speak out all that it hath to offer, let us adde this also to the fore-mentioned Presumptions, that our Saviour hath Appointed and Ordained, that in the Assemblies of his Disciples in his Worship by him required, they who Administer in his Name in and to the Church, should repeat the words of this Prayer, though not peculiarly suited to any one of his Institutions, what will thence be construed to ensue? why then it is supposed that this will follow; that it is not onely lawful, but the duty of some men to Compose other Forms, an hundred times as many, suited in their Judgment to the due Administration of all Ordinances of Worship in particular, imposing them on the Evangelical Administrators of those Ordinances, to be read by them, with a severe interdiction of ⟨p. 18⟩the use of any other Prayers in those Administrations, Bellarmine de Pont. Rom. lib. 4. cap. 16.
