N00779:194
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.
7. That many have Superstitiously abused this blessed portion of Scripture, cannot be denied. They have set up the Lords Prayer in ⟨p. 132⟩the room of Christ himself, imagining that God will accept of their other Petitions for the sake of their repeating this Form, as if that would Sanctify and make amends for the defects in their prayers, which to do belongs to the Mediator, nor can any thing else do it. The Judicious Alting (o)giveth this caution, That in using the Lord• Prayer men should be careful of Superstition in thinking that there is a Latent Efficacy in Words and Syllables. Papists will say their Pater Noster more often in an hour, then the Jews do their Majan prayer in a day, superstitiously dreaming that the pronouncing of those Letters and Syllables will save them. One of the most moderate (†)and ingenuous of their Writers speaks thus, Both rising & going to bed, sitting down and rising from board, and going about any particular action or business; I would have all good Christians to say the Pater Noster. It is (says he) the only Prayer that I use at every place, at all times, and upon every accident; and instead of changing, I use often Repetition of it. Thus speaks a Roman Catholic. Nor are all who call themselves Protestants, altogether free from Superstition in this matter. Many of them are (as Mr. Fenner speaks) in their saving the Lords Prayer, Guilty of Syllabical Idolatry. There are some make a Charm of those Letters and Syllables. What is it better when persons are Judged to be either innocent or guilty of the Crime of Witchcraft ⟨p. 133⟩according as they have power to say or not to say the Lords Prayer? Whether it was Instituted to be a Form or no, I am sure it was never Instituted to Try who are Witches: Nor can the Inability of some Persons to pronounce those Words and Syllables, who can pronounce any other, proceed from natural causes, but from the operation of Daemons. Nor is there certainty in the Experiment. Glanvil (as I remember) confesseth that this kind of Ordeal is fallible. I shall take notice of but one Allegation more: It is pretended that our Saviour has Obliged us to a Form of Words in the Administration of Baptism, and of the Lords Supper: And then why not as well to a Form of words in Prayer? If it were as is objected, there is no consequence in the Argument: