N00779:187
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.
4. There are few of those who use the Lords Prayer, that keep to the words either of Matthew or of Luke in their saying of it. For in the Fifth Petition they vary therefrom. The words in Matthew are, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, Math. 6.12. The words in Luke are, Forgive us our Sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us, Luk. 11.4. When as they that say ⟨p. 123⟩the Lords Prayer use the words which are in the Liturgy, viz Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. It will be said, that is the same thing though not the same words with the other. But this is to give up the cause, since our Question is not concerning things but words. Moreover, by this small alteration of the words a Great Truth, viz. That our Sins are our Debts, is lost. Cyprian is justly blamed for making a little change in the Sixth Petition, for he expresseth it, Ne patiaris nos induci &c Suffer us not to be led into Temptation, whereby a great and mysterious Truth respecting the Activity of Providence in Leading men into Temptation is obscured. They that pretend they are bound in Conscience to use the Lords Prayer as a Form, and so to keep exactly to the words therein contained, are not able to Extricate themselves from this Argument against them. Nor can I give any reason why they express the Fifth Petition as they commonly do, excepting this, that they have taken their use of the Lords Prayer, not out of the Bible but out of the Common Prayer Book.
5. It cannot be proved that either Christ on his Apostles did use this Prayer as a Form. A most Heavenly Prayer made by our Saviour, is recited in the 17th of John, but He did not conclude with the words of this prayer▪ We find in Acts 1.24 And in