The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in…

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 Act. 4 24. That the Apostles prayed in Church-Meetings, but not that they did either begin or conclude ⟨p. 124⟩with the recitation of the Lords Prayer. Durandus ^(f)boldly affirms, That the Apostles Consecrated the Eucharist, by repeating the words of Institution, & super-adding the Lords Prayer. And that Peter did at first so Celebrate that Ordinance in the Oriental Parts where he Resided for the space of four years. I doubt not but that this is as true, as what he further says, that afterwards that Apostle caused three Prayers more to be added to the Mass There is no more proof that the Apostles any of them used to say the Lords Prayer, then there is that the Liturgy fathered on James was wri••en by him; the vanity whereof has been sufficiently discovered by our Protestant Divines. That Incomparable Divine and Casuist, Dr. Ames, ^(†)judgeth that we may conclude that the Lords Prayer was not given as a Form, but as a Platform, because the Scripture says nothing of the Apostles so using it. Neither do the Apostles or Evangelists in any of their Writings Exhort Christians unto the formal usage of that Holy Directory for prayer. Nor do we read any thing of that matter in the next Age after the Apostles. Eusebius ^(g)has record•d an Excellent Prayer made by Polycarp when he Suffered Martyrdom; but although he prayed after that manner which the Lords Prayer requires, there is not one sentence of that prayer in his. Justin Martyr gives an account of what ⟨p. 125⟩