have, for the present, chosen to consider only the form of it; concerning which, I shall give my judgment without any sharpness or bitterness of spirit; for I am resolved not to be angry with any men of another persuasion, as knowing that I differ just as much from them as they do from me.

5. The directory takes away that form of prayer which, by the authority and consent of all the obliging power of the kingdom, hath been used and enjoined ever since the reformation. But this was done by men of differing spirits, and of disagreeing interests: some of them consented to it, that they might take away all set forms of prayer, and give way to every man's spirit; the other, that they might take away this form, and give way and countenance to their own. The first is an enemy to all deliberation: the second, to all authority. They will have no man to deliberate; these would have none but themselves. The former are unwise and rash; the latter are pleased with themselves, and are full of opinion. They must be considered apart, for they have rent the question in pieces, and with the fragment in his hand, every man hath run his own way.

QUESTION I.

7. AND here I consider that the true state of the question is only this, Whether it is better to pray to God with consideration, or without? Whether is the wiser man of the two, he who thinks and deliberates what to say, or he that utters his mind as fast as it comes? Whether is the better man, he who, out of reverence to God, is most careful and curious that he offend not in his tongue, and, therefore, he himself deliberates, and takes the best guides he can; or he who, out of the confidence of his own abilities, or other exterior assistances, ὅμοιος ἂν εἶναι δόξαιμι τοῖς εἰκῇ, καὶ φορτικῶς, καὶ χύδην, — ὅ,τι ἂν ἐπέλθη, λέγουσιν"; speaks whatever comes uppermost.

8. And here I wave the advice and counsel of a very wise man, no less than Solomon, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing

Isocrat, in Panathen. Lange. p. 395.

before God; for God is in heaven and thou upon earth; therefore, let thy words be few." The consideration of the vast distance between God and us, heaven and earth, should create such apprehensions in us, that the very best and choicest of our offertories are not acceptable but by God's gracious vouchsafing and condescension: and, therefore, since we are so much indebted to God for accepting our best, it is not safe ventured to present him with a dough-baked sacrifice, and put him off with that, which, in nature and human consideration, is absolutely the worst; for such is all the crude and imperfect utterance of our more imperfect conceptions: "Hoc non probo in philosopho, cujus oratio, sicut vita, debet esse composita," said Seneca; "A wise man's speech should be like his life and actions, composed, studied, and considered." And if ever inconsideration be the cause of sin and vanity, it is in our words, and, therefore, is, with greatest care, to be avoided in our prayers, we being, most of all, concerned that God may have no quarrel against them, for folly or impiety.

9. But, abstracting from the reason, let us consider who keeps the precept best, he that deliberates, or he that considers not when he speaks? What man in the world is hasty to offer any thing unto God; if he be not, who prays extempore? And then add to it but the weight of Solomon's reason, and let any man answer me, if he thinks it can well stand with that reverence we owe to the immense, the infinite, and to the eternal God, the God of wisdom, to offer him a sacrifice, which we durst not present to a prince or a prudent governor, in re seriâ,' such as our prayers ought to be.

10. And that this may not be dashed with a pretence it is carnal reasoning, I desire it may be remembered, that it is the argument God himself uses against lame, maimed, and imperfect sacrifices, 'Go and offer this to thy prince,' see if he will accept it; implying, that the best person is to have the best present; and what the prince will slight as truly unworthy of him, much more is it unfit for God. For God accepts not of any thing we give or do, as if he were bettered by it; for, therefore, its estimate is not taken by its

Eccles. v. 2.

relation or natural complacency to him, for, in itself, it is to him as nothing: but God accepts it by its proportion and commensuration to us. That which we call our best, and is truly so in human estimate, that pleases God; for it declares, that if we had better, we would give it him. But to reserve the best, says too plainly, that we think any thing is good enough for him. And therefore God, in the law, would not be served by that which was imperfect' in genere naturæ :' so neither now, nor ever, will that please him which is imperfect in genere morum,' or materiâ intellectuali,' when we can give a better.

11. And, therefore, the wisest nations, and the most sober persons, prepared their verses and prayers in set forms with as much religion as they dressed their sacrifices, and observed the rites of festivals and burials. Amongst the Romans, it belonged to the care of the priests to worship in prescribed and determined words. "In omni precatione qui vota effundit sacerdos, Vestam et Janum aliosque deos præscriptis verbis et composito carmine advocare solet." The Greeks did so too, receiving their prayers by dictate, word for word. "Itaque sua carmina suæque precationes singulis diis institutæ sunt; quas plerumque, nequid præposterè dicatur, aliquis ex præscripto præire et ad verbum referre solebat ":" "Their hymns and prayers were ordained peculiar to every god, which, lest any thing should be said preposterously, were usually pronounced, word for word, after the priest, and out of written copies ;" and the magi among the Persians were as considerate in their devotions; "Magos et Persas primo semper diluculo canere diis hymnos et laudes, meditato et solenni precationis carmine;""The Persians sang hymns to their gods by the morning twilight, in a premeditate, solemn, and metrical form of prayer," saith the same author. For, since in all the actions and discourses of men, that which is the least considered is likely to be the worst, and is certainly of the greatest disreputation, it were a strange cheapness of opinion, towards God and religion, to be the most incurious of what we say to him; and in our religious offices, it is strange that every thing should be considered but our prayers. It is spoken by Eunapius, to the honour of

© Alex. ab Alex. lib. ii. c. 14. d Idem, lib. iv. c. 17.

• Ibid.

Proæresius's scholars, that when the proconsul asked their judgments in a question of philosophy, they were goσEVEYNÓVTES τὰ ̓Αριστείδου μετὰ πολλῆς σκέψεως καὶ πόνου, ὡς οὐκ εἰσὶ τῶν ἐμούν των, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀκριβούντων F, “ they, with much consideration and care, gave, in answer, those words of Aristides, 'that they were not of the number of those that used to vomit out answers, but of those that considered every word they were to speak.'" "Nihil enim ordinatum est quod præcipitatur et properat," said Seneca ; " Nothing can be regular and orderly that is hasty and precipitate ;" and, therefore, unless religion be the most imprudent, trifling, and inconsiderable thing, and that the work of the Lord is done well enough, when it is done negligently, or that the sanctuary hath the greatest beauty, when it hath the least order, it will concern us highly to think our prayers and religious offices are actions fit for wise men, and, therefore, to be done as the actions of wise men use to be, that is, deliberately, prudently, and with greatest consideration.

12. Well then, in the nature of the thing, extempore forms have much the worse of it. But it is pretended that there is such a thing as the gift of prayer, a praying with the spirit; "Et nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia," God's Spirit, if he pleases, can do his work as well in an instant as in long premeditation. And to this purpose are pretended those places of Scripture, which speak of assistance of God's Spirit in our prayers: "And I will pour upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication." But especially Rom. viii. 26., "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning that cannot be uttered," &c. From whence the conclusion that is inferred is, in the words of St. Paul," that we must pray with the Spirit," therefore, not with set forms, therefore extempore.

13. The collection is somewhat wild, for there is great independency in the several parts; and much more is in the conclusion than was virtually in the premises. But such as it is, the authors of it, I suppose, will own it. And,

therefore, we will examine the main design of it, and then consider the particular means of its persuasion, quoted in the objection.

14. It is one of the privileges of the Gospel, and the benefits of Christ's ascension, that the Holy Ghost is given unto the church, and is become to us the fountain of gifts and graces. But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our natural faculties, of our art and industry, not extraordinary, miraculous, and immediate infusions of habits and gifts. That without God's Spirit we cannot pray aright, that our infirmities need his help, that we know not what to ask, of ourselves, is most true; and if ever any heretic was more confident of his own naturals, or did ever more undervalue God's grace, than the Pelagian did, yet he denies not this: but what then? therefore without study, without art, without premeditation, without learning, the Spirit gives the gift of prayer, and is it his grace that, without any natural or artificial help, makes us pray extempore? No such thing: the objection proves nothing of this.

15. Here, therefore, we will join issue, whether the gifts and helps of the Spirit be immediate infusions of the faculties, and powers, and perfect abilities? Or that he doth assist us only by his aids, external and internal, in the use of such means which God and nature have given to man, to ennoble his soul, better his faculties, and to improve his understanding? That the aids of the Holy Ghost are only assistances to us, in the use of natural and artificial means, I will undertake to prove; and from thence it will evidently follow, that labour, and hard study, and premeditation, will soonest purchase the gift of prayer, and ascertain us of the assistance of the Spirit; and, therefore, set forms of prayer, studied and considered of, are in a true and proper sense, and without enthusiasm, the fruits of the Spirit.

16. First; God's Spirit did assist the apostles by ways extraordinary, and fit for the first institution of Christianity; but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately.

17. Thus the Holy Ghost brought to their memory all things which Jesus spake and did, and, by that means, we come to know all that the Spirit knew to be necessary for us,