N00779:184
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.
1. That our Saviours words are, After this manner pray ye. Mat. 6.9. Whence Austin (c)concludes that Christ taught his Disciples not what words they should use in Prayer, but what things they should pray for. To the same purpose does Bede speak. And this also is the sense of Calvin, Musculus, Piscator, Bertram, and of Grotius himself, that our Saviour did not intend that His Disciples were bound to recite those words in Prayer, nor would He tie them to the use of Syllables. Nor indeed is it probable that our Lord in the midst of his […] would prescribe a Form of Words to His Disciples▪ Whence Mr. Joseph Mede (a great Conformist) concludes, (d)That when those words were first uttered, the Disciples understood not that their Master intended it for a Form of Prayer, but for a Pattern or Example only. He that prays for any thing not contained in that Platform of Prayer, does not pray after that manner, but he that does with Faith pray for the things comprehended therein, although he should not use one Expression in it, but other words importing that sense, does truly Pray after that manner. It is Pleaded that in Luke the words are When you pray, say; but that may well be interpreted not as intending say ⟨p. 120⟩these words, but these things in your prayers: So does Grotius give the sense of them. When Moses was charged, Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, &c. Exod. 4.22. He did not think •hat he was obliged to say those very words, only to Express that thing: Nor did he in deliv•••ng his Message tie himself to those words and syllables. The like may be here affirmed. Moreover, most of those that do Say the Lords Prayer, do not say as 'tis in Luke.
1. That our Saviours words are, After this manner pray ye. Mat. 6.9