N00898:33
Some remarks on a late sermon, preached at Boston in New England, by George…
Some remarks on a late sermon, preached at Boston in New England, by George Keith M.A. Showing that his pretended good rules in divinity, are not built on the foundation of the apostles & prophets. / By Increase Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]Some remarks on a late sermon, preached at Boston in New England, by George Keith M.A. Shewing that his pretended good rules in divinity, are not built on the foundation of the apostles & prophets. / By Increase Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]
Boston: printed for Nicholas Boone near the old meeting house, 1702
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Some REMARKS On a late Sermon Preached at Boston in New England.
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.
Boise, (b)has well showed, that God was so far from confining the Jews to any ••inted Liturgy, that most of the Prayers, both private and public recorded in the Old Testament, are conceived or free Prayers, without any set or prescribed form. Such was Solomons prayer at the Dedication of the Temple. 1 King 8. and Asas, 2 Chron. 14. And Jehoshaphat's. 2 Chron. 20. And Hezekiahs. Isai. 37. And Ezras. Chap 9. And the Confession in Neh. 9. was a free conceived prayer, according as God was pleased to afford the assistance of his Holy Spirit. It is pretended that our Saviour taught his Disciples a Form of Prayer. I have in another Discourse proved that the Lords Prayer was given as a Platform and Directory, ⟨p. 24⟩and not commanded to be used as a Form, as is evident in that the words of that prayer in the two Evangelists Matthew and Luke, are not altogether the same. Our Saviours design in delivering that Prayer, was not to teach his Disciples what words they should use in Prayers, but what things they should pray for, as very many Divines both Ancient and Modern have truly asserted. And therefore we do not find that ever the Apostles concluded their Prayers with the repetition of those words. Nor that it was usual to do so among Christians in the next Age to the Apostles. In the third Century it was practised in some Churches. From that Expression in(i) Tertullian, Praemissa Legitim• et Ordinari• Oratione: 'Tis conjectured that in those days they did not conclude but begin their public Prayers with the Lords Prayer. It was a long time before they would use it in mixed Assemblies, only at the Lords Supper when the Church was by themselves. They would not permit the Catechumeni to be present when that Prayer was used in the days of Austin and Chrysostom. To finish this Argument. If there had been any need of a Common Prayer Book for the Edification of the Churches, doubtless the Apostles would have composed one, which they never did. We therefore conclude, that