Answer to Giffords Defense of Read Prayers, Title page – To the reader 2
AN AVNSVVER TO GEORGE GIFFORDS PRETENDED DEFENCE OF READ PRAYERS AND DEVIsed Leitourgies with the vngodly cauils and vvicked sclanders comprised in the first part of his book entituled, A SHORT TREATISE against the Donatists of England.
BY IOHN GREENWOOD CHRISTS POORE AFFLICTED prisoner in the Fleete at London, for the trueth of the gospel.
1590.
To the Christian Reader / grace and peace from God our Father and Iesus Christ our Lord.
BEcause Prayer vntounto God is a most Christian exercise and fruit of faith / being rightly vsed: having so many commaundements and promises concerning it in the Scripture: by which we come most neare vntounto God / as in any other part of his worship / speaking to him (as it were) mouth to mouth / when we lift vp our hearts and powre forth our requests vntounto the Lord: it was thougt needfull / seing these latter Treatises of Mr. Greenwoods towching this Argumēt are now published agayne / ād his first concerning it cannot be had / here therefore to note downe briefly a few things both cō cerning the doctrine ād right vse of praier: ād in particular concerning read prayer / by meanes whereof it is come to passe that true praier is so much vnknowē / neglected / ād profaned. And this we pray thee (Christian Reader) to take in good part / and to examine vp the word of God / which is the onelyonly rule of truth / and light of our feet in the darknes of this World.
Prayer is the lifting vp off the heart vntounto God / to call vponupon his name / with faith / by the work and help of his Spirit. Psal. 25.1. Rom. 10 1;.14. Mat. 21.22. Rom. 8.26.27.
Praier is eyther with words / or without words. With words / being vttered in speach / eyther publickly or privately: eyther in mo or fewer words: yet alway briefly: according …o the present and severall occasiōs. Exod. 32.11.12.13. Ezra. 9.6.15 / 2. …am. 7.18.29. and 15.31. Mat. 26.39 Ioh. 17. chap. Act. 1.24.25. and 4.24.30. Heb. 13.15.
Without words / being conceyved onelyonly in the mynd / and so presented before the Lord who knoweth the thoughts and secrets of the heart. Exod. 14.15 / …. Sam. 1.12.13. Esa. 38.14.
Prayer is eyther Request or Thankesgiving. Both these are eyther for our selves / or for others. Request for our selves / is deprecatiō or supplication: for others / intercession. 1. Tim. 2.1.
Deprecation is for some evill to be kept or removed by the Lord frō vsus. Mat. 6.13. and 8.24.25. Psal. 70. Gen. 32.9.12 / 2. Cor. 12.8. Iā. ….13.
Supplication is for some good thing to be graunted or cōtinewed of God vntounto vsus. Mat. 6.9.12. Gen. 24.12. Exod. 33.12.13. Psal. 4.6. Luk. 11.13. and 17.5.
Intercession is for others / eyther for some good to be given / or some evill to be taken from them. Mat. 6.9.11.12. and 5.44. Exod. 32.11.12. 13. Ephes. 6.18.19.20. Rom. 15.30.31.32. Iam. 5.14.18 / 1. Ioh. 5.16.
Thankesgiving is the yeelding of praise and thāks vntounto God for his mercy and benefits eyther given or promised. M….. 6…9.13. Gen. 24.27. Exo. 15.1.21. Psa. 69.29.36. ād 103.1.5: Ioh. 11.41. 1. Tim. 1.17. Re. 7.1…
Prayer is to be made alwayes and onelyonly in the Mediation of Christ. Ioh. 14.13.14.1. Tim. 2.5. Not that this need alway to be mentioned / but that we ought alway to come before God and present our selves / and our prayers vntounto him with faith in the Mediation of Christ … by whom alone / we and al our sacrifices are made acceptable vntounto God. For in him are all the promises of God yea and Amen. 2. Cor. 1.20. Through him are all the graces ād mercyes of God conveyed vntounto vsus Ioh. 1.16. Ephes. 4.7. By his Mediatiō our prayers being presented before his Father / all the weaknes / want of faith love hope / ād any other corruption wherewith our prayers (as they proceed from vsus) be disteyned / are covered and taken away. Because he putteth the sweet odour of his Mediation vntounto our prayers / and so presenting them to his Father / they are accepted of him. Rev. 8.3.4. with Exod. 30.7.8. Psal. 141.2 Mar. 9.22.23.24 / 1. Pet. 2.5.
For this cause therefore / must prayer / in faith / alway respect Gods promise / and Christs Mediation. Mar. 11.24. Psal. 50.15. Rom. 8.34. Heb: 7.25. and 9.24. And for the same cause / must the person that prayeth first be accepted of God in Christ / before their prayers and sacrifices can be approved. Rev. 1.5.6 / 1. Pet. 2.5. Prov. 15.8, Hag. 2.13.14.15. Gen. 4.3.4.5. and 6.8. and 8.20.21. with Heb. 11.4.7. Wherevpon we are bound to be carefull / first our selves to be in the true faith and Church of Christ / vnderunder his Mediation / that we may our selves be accepted of the Father in him: and then in faith to offer our prayers / both for matter and maner / so as we have warrant by the word of God / that he wil heare vsus / ād that Christ will be our Mediatour / therein. For which see the Scriptures a foresaid: and Mat. 6.9 Ephes. 2.19. and 4.4.5.6. Act. 2.41.47. Exo. 30.9. Levi. 17.3.7. Deut. 12.5.8. Psal. 16.4. and 50.8.14.16 17.23. Esa. 1.12. etc. Mal. 1.14 / 1. Tim. 2.1.2.5.8. Iam. 1.5.8. Iohn 5. 13.14. Rev. 8.3.4.
For our better direction and assurance herein / hath Christ givē that forme of prayer / which is commonly called the Lords prayer. Mat. 6. 9.13. Luk. 14.1.2.3.4. Where he hath prescribed a direction for the framing of all our prayers both for matter and maner according to that rule. For in it we are taught / as towching the matter of all our prayers / that they be for things first and chiefly concerning Gods glory / and then concerning our good / so as will stand with the glory of God. Ioh. 12.27.28. And towching the maner of prayer / that it be in faith hope and love / with reverence / briefly and humbly propounded / that he in al may be glorifyed. In faith (I say) both of Gods willingnes to heare ād help / as being our Father in Christ / ād of his ability therevnto as being in heaven able to do whatsoever he will. Esa. 63.16. Psal. 115.3. In hope / of his mercy and favour towards vsus / he being our Father and we his children in Christ. Luc. 11.9.13. In love both off God and one off another / in Christ. Psa. 116.1. Mar. 11.25.26. Act. 4.24. With reverēce / as coming before our heavenly Father / who is full off glory and Majesty / he in heaven / we on earth etc. And therefore also ought our prayers briefly and hunbly to be propounded: not seking after long or affected speach / nor vsing vayne repetitions etc. Mat. 6.7.8.9. Genes. 18.27. Exood. 34.8.9. Ecclesiast. 5.1.
And note here / that Christ hath propounded this direction / not by way off exhortation or doctrine / as in other cases he was woont / but in forme off petitions / and those very brieff: Least otherwise we should have doubted that we might not with such confidence in few words have spoken directly vntounto God himselff: but that we must have vsed either mediatours for vsus / as the Papists / or sighs onelyonly without words as the Anabaptists / or never ceasing from prayer / as the Eutychians / or at least some long circu…stāce off words ād great affectatiō of speach or the like / as ignorance / superstition / and hypocrisy are ready to lead vntounto.
Finally / in this forme off prayer / by Christ we are taught / that the end and scope off all our prayers / ought to be the glory God in Christ. And that therefore we pray alway / with submission off our selves and our requests vntounto his will / who being King and Lord ouer all / knoweth and will performe what he seeth best for his glory and our good. Mat. 6.13.
And thus prayer conceyved or vttered in five words / is better then ten thousand otherwise / as the Apostle speaketh of prayer in another case / 1. Cor. 14.19.
Now the help which God hath promised ād giueth vntounto vsus in praier is his Spirit. Which is as the fyer / quickning and stirring vp our spirit to and in prayer: given of God vntounto vsus for the helping off our infirmityes / that we by it in faith should call vponupon the Lord our Father in Christ: Rom. 8.26.27. Gal. 4.6. with Exod. 30.7.8. And this fitly agreeth with the nature of God / who as he is a Spirit in himselff / so wil he off vsus be worshipped in Spirit and truth. Ioh. 4.24. Ephes. 6.18.
Other helps as off praying vpō a book / or of beads / or the like / read we not any appointed by God. Many tymes in deed we read in the Scripture off the prayers off the faithfull made to the Lord / but never off any one that read their prayers vponupon a book or reckned them vponupon beads etc. And no marvell / seing the Lord did never eyther commaund to vse / or promise to accept such service off him. Therefore must it needs be / that book prayers / etc. are an invention off man / and a vayne worship off GOD. Exod. 20.4.5.6. Esaie 29.13. Matthe. 15.9.
Neyther can this stand with the nature and dutyes off prayer / before mentioned: But in deed breedeth and nourisheth both ignorance and neglect off true prayer / as by lamentable experience may be seen.
But into this poynt we will not now further enter / seing it is sufficiētly handled in these Treatises which were purposely written concerning it. OnelyOnly because Mr. Henry Barrow (who was Mr. Greēwoods fellow prisoner and fellow Martyr) hath also written of this point / and namely cōcerning the book of cōmō prayer particularly in some books of his / which now are scant to be gotten / we thought it good likewise / from thence to annex these few lynes following cōcerning it. Mr. Barrow therefore in his discovery of the false Church / speaking of the book of common prayer / writeth thus: Pag. 64.65.66.67.
This book / in that it standeth a publick prescript continewed Leiturgy / as iff it were the best that ever was devised by mortall man / yet in this place ād vse / being brought into the Church / yea or into any private house / yt becometh a detestable idol / standing for that yt is not in the Church of God and consciences of men: namely / for holy / spirituall / and faithfull prayer / yt being nothing lesse / but rather abhominable ād lothsome sacrifice in the sight of God / even as a dead dogg,Levi. 1.2.3 / 4. Chapt. Now vnderunder the law / might neither any corrupt or any vnlawful sacrifice / with any sene blemish / be offred at the Altar / nether any part of any beast (though whiles / yt liued never so sufficiēt) being slayne before yt be brought vntounto the Altar / yt was abhomination vntounto the Lord: Euerie sacrifice must be brought quick ād new vntounto the Altar / ād there be slayne everie morning and euening:1. Cor. 6 / 19. 1. Petri 2 / 5. …. 21:10. …om. 12.1. how much more in this spiritual Temple of God / where the offringes are spiritual / and God hath made al his servātes Kings / ād priestes / to offer vp acceptable sacrifices vntounto him / through Iesus Christ / who hath thervnto givē thē his holy spirit into their hearts / to helpe their infirmities / ād teach thē to crie Abba Father.Rom. 8 / 26.15. Ephe. 4 7.8 / etc. How much more hath he which ascended / givē graces to those his servantes (whome he vseth in such high seruices) to the repairing of the Saintes / the worke of the ministerie / and the edificatiō of the church? vntounto whome God vseth thē / as his mouth: the Church againe on the other side / vseth thē as their mouth vntounto the Lord.Isa. 28 / 9. etc. Hebr. 5.13 Shal we think that God hath any time left these his servantes so singly furnished and destitute off his grace / they cannot find words according to their necessityes and faith / to expresse their wantes and desires / but need thus to be taught line vntounto line / as children new weaned from the brestes / what and whē to say / how much to say / and when to make an end / to say this collect at the beginning / that at the end / that before / the tother after / this in the morning / that at after noone etc. How like children / or rather like masking fooles are these great clarkes dressed?… / Corin. 3 / 2 shew they not hereby / that either they have no faith / or els are such infantes / as they hauehave more need to be fed / thē to divide the portion vntounto others?Heb. 4 / 16 2 / Eph. 3 / 12 Know they trow we / what prayer or the spirit of God meaneth? Prayer I take to be a confident demanding which faith maketh thorow the holy Ghost / according to the wil of God / for their present wātes / estate etc. How now ca… any read / prescript / stinted Leitourgie, which was pēned many yeares or daies before / be said a powring forth of the heart vntounto the Lord? or those faithful requestes which are stirred vp in them / by the holy Ghost / accordingl… to their present wantes and estate of their heartes / or Church?1 Iohn. 2 / …. Ephes. 6 / 18. Phil. 4 / 6 The whole book of Psalmes Lament. 3.40.41. Ioel … / 14 Moses 14 / …. Prov. 4 / 18 / 19. Luke 11 / 2… / vnlesse they can say / that their heartes and Church stād in the same estate now / and so still to their liues end shal cōtinue / without either further increase or decrease / change or alteratiō / as they did thē: yea / that their childerēs childrē shal also so cōtinue / to whome they leave and incommend this Leitourgie, vntounto the worldes end. What a strā ge estate is this / that alwaies thus standeth / at a stay? The way of the righteous (Solomon saith) shineth as / the light / that shineth more and more vntounto the perfect day: as on the contrarie / the way of the wicked is as the darknes / they know not wherin they shall fall. Our Sauiour Christ saith / that if we gather not / we scatter.1 Petri 2 / 2 Ephes. 4 / 13. The Apostle Peter willeth the new borne babes to desire the sincere milke of the word / that they may grow therby: vntil they come to the measure of the age of the fulnes of Christ saith the Apostle Paul. Now then if they and their church increase not in the measure of knowledg / grace / holines / etc. yt is an infallible signe that they hauehave not the Spirit of God. If they do increase why thē is not God served with his owne best giftes? Is not the iudgmēt of the Prophet thē vpō thē / wich saith / cursed be the deceiuer / with hath in his flok a male / yet voweth ād sacrificeth vntounto the Lord a corrupt thing.Mala. 1 / 14. Is this old rottē leitourgis their new sōgs they sing vntounto te Lord with ād for his graces? May such old writtē rottē stuffe be called prayer / the odours of the Saintes / burnt with that heavenly fire of the Altar / the lively graces of the Spirit etc. may reading be said praying? may such apocrypha trumperie be brought into the Church off God / and there be read / reverenced ād receaued / as the sacred word of God? thrust vponupon mens consciences / yea vponupon God himself whether he wil or no? Is not this presūptuously to vndertake to teach the spirit of God? and to take away his office / which (as hath beene said) instructeth al the children of God to pray / evē with inward sighes and grones in expressable / and giueth both wordes ād vtterāce / yea and (as the Apostle Ihon saieth) we need no other teacher to these thinges / then that annointing which we have receaved / and dwelleth in vsus.Rō 8 / 26 / 27 1 / Ioh. 2 / 27 Is not this) if they wil hauehave their written stuffe to be held and vsed as prayer) to bind the holy Ghost to the froth and leaven of their lips / as yt were to the holy word of God? Is it not vtterly to quench and extinguish the spirit off God / both in the ministerie and people / whiles they tye both thē and God to their stinted numbred praiers?
Is this the vnitie and vniformitie that ought to be in al Churches? and is amongst al Christes servantes / to make thē agree in a stinking patcherie devised apocrypha leitorgie, good for nothing but for cushsions and pillowes for the idle priestes / and profane carnal Atheistes to rock them a sleepe and keep them in securitie / wherby the conscience is no way either touched / edified / or bettered? Truly I am ashamed to think / much more to write of so grosse and filthie abhominacion / so generally receaved / even of al estates / of these partes of the world / who have by a popish custom and traditiō receaued yt one off / and from an other / without any warrant from the word. For the Apostles (I am sure) these maister builders / hauehave left no such president in / or commādement vntounto the churches / neither giuen them any such power to bring in or set vp any such apocrypha Lyturgie in the church of God.1. Tim. 2.1. Hebr. 13.15. Ephes. 6.18 Philip. 4 / 6 1. Cor. 14 / 15 Iohn. 4.24 They alwaies vsed spiritual praiers according to their present wātes and occasions / and so taught all churches to pray / alwaies / with al maner off praier ond supplication in the spirit / and therby to make knowen their wantes / and shew their requestes in al thinges vntounto God their heauēly father: Our Sauiour Christ also / he taugt his disciples / that God is a Spirit / and wil be worshipped in spirit and truth. He hath likewise set downe most excellent rules / and a most absolute forme for al praiers in that part of scripture Mat. 6.9.10.11.12.13. commōly (but falsly) called the Lords praier: wherin he hath most notably instructed / directed / ād restrained our ignorant and inordinate desires / to those excellent heades. In which / whatsoeuer is needful for vsus to desire / or lawful for vsus to pray / is in some one or other of those brāches included: euerie one off the being a base and foundatiō / wherevpō and wherby to frame many millions of seueral peticions / according to the seueral wātes and occasions / at such several times as the saintes hauehave cause to pray. They are al of thē / so many euerrunning fountaines from which Godes seruātes by the holy Ghost / deriue and draw cōtinually fresh ād new graces: ād are al together such an abisme and vnmeasured …ea of wisdome / from which al Christes seruātes thorough the world / hauehave alwaies fetched all their knowledg / graces / confort / and assurance of ād in their praiers (according to the capacitie of the vessel of their faith) some more / some lesse / al some / yet hauehave not al of thē together / much lesse any one of thē is able in the litle dish of his shallow vnderstāding / to comprise the vnmeasurable depth and greatnes of this Ocean of al wisdome ād grace. Wherby yt is euidēt / as also by the circumstāces and maner of deliuering the same by our Sauiour Christ / by his Apostles / Disciples and Churches spiritual vse of praier according to their present estate and wantes / that these prescript wordes were not giuen or inioyned as a prescript praier / so to be vsed by any / even the wisest / much lesse the simpler / vnbroken vp / vnexpounded / etc. so much as a compendious summarie of al necessarie knowledg / ād rules for al praier / gathered (by the Author of all wisdome) into a brief / for the direction and instruction of our weaknes and ignorance.
Of which endes ād vses / whiles some are ignorāt / or rather (as their grosse idolatrie / carnal dulnes / and superstitious presumptiō sheweth) are ignorant either what faithful praier / or the spirit of God is: whiles they both popishly abuse this Scripture as a principal collect in their publike leitourgie / with their oftē and idle repetition therof / fiue times in their morrow masse / etc. and / also through this abuse they grow further bold to mould a new calfe / a new Leitourgie of their owne / and set that vp also in the church of God / as they count yt.
Yf yt were granted thē / that this scripture / and sundry psalmes / and other scriptures they alledg out of the prophetts / were cōmanded and enioyned to be read and vsed / as / and for the very praiers of the church and of the Saintes (then which nothing can be more false or grosly fond to conceaue) yet which way (if this were granted them) can they hereby proue yt lawful for them to bring in th…ir ow…e apocrypha deuises / ād set them vp in the church as ād with the holy canonical word of God? May their stinking filth be compared or placed with the heauēly liuely word of God / without v…sufferable blasphemie? may the froth of their lips / and follie of their heartes be thrust vponupon mens consciences / yea euen vponupon the Spirit of God himself in this maner? In the church of God may nothing come / or be heard / but the canonical scriptures ād liuely graces of Godes Spirit / according to the same. But these their apocrypha Leitourgies / can neither be said the word of God / neither the liuely graces of Gods spirit according to the same word / seing they were made and conceiued long before / and are wholy thus vsed / without warrant / example or commandement in the word of God / yea are contrary to the rules of ād for praier / to the exercise and vse of Gods Spirit / and directly set against al the lawes of the first Table / by worshipping God in vaine / afther their owne traditions / preceptes / ād devises / and not according to his holy Wil / and commandement.
And agayne / in his Refutation of Mr. Giffard / he briefly summeth vp in generall / some especiall reasons against the common prayer book afore said / besides the discu…sing of it in particular from point to point. His reasons concerning it in generall / he thus propoundeth / Refutat. pag. 49.50.
1. In that they presume to giuegive and enioyne their prescript wordes in praier, they take the office of the holie Ghost a waye, quēch the spirit of the ministrie, and of the whole Church, stop and keepe out the graces of God, thrust their owne idle devises vponupon the whole Church, yea vponupon God himselfe vvhether he wil or no:
2. In that by their Leitourgie they prescribe vvhat and how much to reade, at Morne to their Mattens, at Eauen &c. teachinge the church and ministrie to pray by nomber, slint, and proportiō, it is not onelyonly popish, but most friuolous and vaine, disgracing and not instructing the Church and ministerie:
3. In that by this their Leitourgie they prescribe vntounto the Church what Scriptures publiquelie to read and vvhen to reade them, as these Chapters and Psalmes at their mattēs before noone, those at afternoone &c. On all the dayes that they have publique meetings and service through the yeere, and so from yeere to yeere. They therebie take from the Church the …olie and free vse both of the Scriptures and spirit off God. They therbie conceale and shut out of the Church a great part off Gods holie worde which they reade not. As also abuse without order those Scriptures they enioyne to be read:
4. In that they shread, rend, and dismember the scriptures from the holie Order and natural sense of their context, to make them Epistles, Gospels, Lessons, select Psalmes, to their festivals and idol worship aboue-said, They most heinouslie pervert and abuse the Scriptures to the high dishonor of God & their owne feareful iudgment.
5. In that they bring in ād cōmaunde the Apocrypha writings to be publiquelie read in the Church: They both mainetaine and publiquelie teach the dangerous errors therin contayned, to the poysoning and subverting of the faith of the church. They thrust these devises of mē into the place of Gods worde, causing the people therebie to reverence and esteeme thē as the holie Oracles of God, of like aucthoritie, dignitie, and truth, and to resorte vntounto thē to builde their faith thervpō, and therbie they bring in an other foundation into the Church: besides the high iniurie donne vntounto God therbie:
6. Finallie in that by this their Leitourgie they bring in, erect, ād enioyne a nevv & strāge kinde of administratiō, as is aboue proued in the perticulars: They make and erect a new Gospel, and so must needes also erect vntounto yt a new ministrie. For the ministrie of Christ is ōly bounde vntounto, ād vvil onlie administer by Christes Testament vvherein they hauehave a most perfect Leitourgie for the vvhole administration of his Church. Therfore this present Leitourgie and ministrie of Englād: are by al these reasons in general and particular founde ād proved at once to be counterfeite, vngodlie, and Antichristian.
Hitherto Mr. Barrow / ād much more in his books afore named / as the reader there may fynd. Now to conclude / the end of publishing these things / is to stirre vp al that feare God / seriously to mynd what true prayer is / and to be carefull to vse it aright / according to the word off God / which in al thinges / faith (without which it is imyossible to please God) must alway respect and build vpō. Rom. 10.17. and 14.23. Heb. 11.6. Iosh. 1.7.8. That so we may in this / as in all other dutyes of godlynes / learne to performe it so as whereby we may be cōforted of God / and God may be glorifyed off vsus / in Iesus Christ. 1603.
FINIS.
¶ TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.
TOvvching the treatises follovving, know (Good Reader) that Mr. GREENVVOODS first vvriting concerning read prayer &c. vvas by the Prelates taken from him. Wherevpon he desired Mr. GIFFORD, vvho vvrote against him and had the copy of it, to publish it also to the vvorld. But he vvould not do it: and so by their meanes it yet remayneth suppressed. For vvhat cause, thou mayest vvell conjecture vvith thy selfe.
These things, Mr. GREENVVOOD himself signifyeth here in the Treatise ensuing. Novv if by any meanes that first of his come into thy handes, be thou entreated, for the truths sake, eyther thy selfe to publish it, or to deliver it to such as vvill: That so the vvhole matter and cariage of it may better appeare to all men, for the …urther manifestation of the truth in this behalf. In the meane tyme, these are published for thy benefit. The Lord give thee so to vse them. as may be for his prayse, and thy comfort in Christ: Remembring alvvay, that he is Mediator, not for any false vvorship vvhatsoever, but for that onelyonly vvhichwhich is according to his vvord. Which poynt vvell mynded (as it ought) vvould soone end the question here controverted, and all other the like: vvith all such as feare God▪ Mynd it therefore, and so farevvell in the Lord.