# Reciting Prayers



## WrittenFromUtopia (Nov 20, 2006)

Would you consider it more or less Biblical and prudent according to the Reformed tradition to pray by recitation or by "spontaneity(sp?)"? Why?


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## Contra_Mundum (Nov 20, 2006)

YES! spontaneity _*is*_ spelled correctly.


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## Contra_Mundum (Nov 20, 2006)

Much of the Psalter is prayer (beside proclamation & prayer). So I don't think that there is anything _per se_ that makes recited prayer inappropriate.

The Reformed Church did not _generally_ abandon use of, say, the Lord's Prayer. Calvin included a pre-prepared common confession of sin and credal recitation. I don't think that prudence (or the Bible) demands the exclusion of all set forms, read or recited. But it is a violation of prudence to prevent a preacher from praying according to the need of the hour.

I do think that literally a full "prayer-book-service" from start to finish--especially where preaching is minimized or non-existent--is usually unwise and stifling. It implies the situation that obtained back in the day when the people were ignorant and ignorantly led by a clergy unfit and unprepared in knowedge of the Scriptures.

I think the Unbiblical/Imprudent direction is at/toward either extreme. And the situation of that church on that date will play a role in finding the proper balance for that church.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 20, 2006)

John Bunyan and John Owen on Written Prayers



> JOHN BUNYAN: A SOURCE FOR A BAPTIST SPIRITUALITY OF PRAYER
> 
> My Baptist heritage has generally affirmed that when it comes to praying, written prayers are really not acceptable. Prayer has to be extemporaneous. One key source for this conviction is John Bunyan (1628-1688) and his influential treatise I will pray with the Spirit (1662).
> 
> ...



Brian Schwertley, _Are Liturgies Authorized By Scripture?_:



> Thus, in this article we will be contrasting the use of biblically informed, intelligent ex tempore prayer as the scriptural ideal in public worship versus the use of a set form of prayer in which the right of ministers to form their own prayers is taken away.
> 
> Second, we will not be advocating the position taken by some radical Puritans and Separatists that all written out prayers, including even the Lord’s prayer, are not ever to be allowed in public worship. (“The Brownists, the Barrowists, and the earliest Independents were decidedly against the repetition of the Lord’s prayer.”[1] They regarded it solely as a model for prayer which is never to be used as a prescribed prayer.) This position was never held by Calvin, Knox, the majority of Puritans, the early Presbyterians or the Westminster Assembly. This issue is not no written prayers at all versus written prayers but rather the imposed, required, every Sabbath use of prescribed prayers versus the biblical ideal of ex tempore prayer from the heart. For Presbyterians, written prayers were viewed as crutches or guides for those people who were deficient in their understanding of how to pray. Samuel Miller writes:
> 
> ...


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 22, 2007)

Archibald Hall, _Gospel Worship_, Vol. I, pp. 204-208:



> V. I shall, in the next place, enquire, Whether it is proper to use stated forms of prayer, when we call upon God?
> 
> It is generally allowed, that if set forms are found, or agreeable to the will of God, they may be used by children, or such as are weak in knowledge. All are agreed in commending the prudence of our first reformers in England, who, by composing homilies and forms of prayer, endeavoured, as much as might be, to provide an help for the doleful ignorance of the clergy. But it is humbly submitted to the impartial consideration of the intelligent and serious, whether the advantages of praying freely, without being tied to a form, are not manifest and great? A perpetual confinement to the best forms, will be attended with such inconveniences as these:[7]
> 
> ...


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## MrMerlin777 (Jan 22, 2007)

Contra_Mundum said:


> I think the Unbiblical/Imprudent direction is at/toward either extreme. And the situation of that church on that date will play a role in finding the proper balance for that church.



 

I do like the Anglican prayer book though.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 27, 2007)

John Brown of Haddington, _Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism_, pp. 342-343:



> Q. What special rule of direction in prayer hath God given us? -- A. That form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, which is commonly called _the Lord's prayer_, because the Lord Jesus prescribed it.
> 
> Q. Did Christ prescribe it as a form, the express words of which we are bound to use? -- A. No; but as a pattern of prayer, directing us what we should pray for, and in what order we should offer our requests.
> 
> ...


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