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The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in…
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1700
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.
QUESTION. XVI. IS it a Duty for Christians in their Prayers to make use of the words of that which is Commonly called the Lords Prayer?
Answ. It cannot be proved that this is a duty. The Question is not whether it is Lawful to make use of those words in Prayer. No man can rationally doubt, but that the words in that as well as the words of other Prayers in the Scripture may be made use of in our Addresses to Heaven. The Rigid Separatists will not deny this. Mr. Aynsworth says, (a)We hold it Good and Holy to use aright any of the Lords Prayers, or any words of Scripture, or those or any of those Petitions taught us in Matth. 6. or Luk. 11. in the words of ⟨p. 118⟩either Evangelist, or other words as the Spirit of God which helps us to Pray, leadeth us to any of them Likewise Mr. Robinson (b)who was a Rigid Separatist until Dr. Ames convinced him of his Error therein, He says, We hold it Lawful to use th•se very words in our Prayers, all, or any part of them, if we be thereunto Guided by the Holy Spirit in whom we must always Pray, and by whose help we must make our Requests unto God. Doubtless then Congregational men will concede as much as this cometh to. Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs (a famous Divine of the Congregational Persuasion) once when he Preached his Expository Lectures was prevented from coming to the Assembly exactly at the Hour appointed, If he should at that time have enlarged in Prayer as he usually did, the Auditors would have been detained longer then they expected. Nor was he willing to begin his Exposition without any Prayer at all, he therefore began it with only Praying in the words of the Lords Prayer. This report I believe; for my mst Dar and Honoured Friend Dr. William Bates, late Pastor of a Church in Hackney near London (whom for Honours sake I mention) assured me that he was then present and an Ear Witness of what I have now related But the Question is, Whether this is necessary: Not whether a Minister may without Sin make use of the words of the