commended to the Ufe of the People of God? Or how can that Prayer, conceiv'd and pronounc'd by another, whofe Thoughts I can't comprehend, be lefs a Form to me, than those Words which I read out of a Book? Certainly the Disciples of our blefled Saviour fhow'd themfelves extremely weak and ignorant, when they beg'd of their Mafter, that he would teach them to pray: And as John the Baptift must have impofed very much upon his Difciples and Followers, when he prescribed to them Forms of Prayer, fo it must have been a great Errour in our Saviour to have countenanced that impofing Humour of the Baptift, by a Parallel Practice of his own.

But, indeed, what's enough to make every fober understanding Christian set the higher Value upon publick Forms of Prayer: Those very Perfons, who deny the Common Prayers of our Holy Mother the Church of England, thofe Perfons difdain as much to make Ufe of that Heavenly Form of Prayer,which our Redeemer himfelf, the Eternal Wifdom of God, compos'd for the Ufe of his own Difciples. And therefore, those who frequent the Meetings of our Separatifts,will find that Divine Prayer of our Lord us'd as feldom as our Liturgy among them. I confefs we dare not be fo bold. And if we would be unwilling to prefent an Addrefs to an Earthly Prince without clofe Confultations, mutual Advices and frequent Corrections, left we should happen to be guilty of any offenfive or indecent Expreffion, have we not infinitely more Reason to be careful in our Addreffes to an Allwife God? To Him who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords? Have we not as much Reafon to fear,

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left our Words fhould be unacceptable to him? Or do we reverence the great King of Heaven and Earth less than we reverence his Vice-gerents, the Powers here on Earth? Cannot a Jew, a Turk, a Heathen think, methodize and express his Thoughts as freely, and with as humble and ferious an Action and as pleafing a Tone, as the moft devout Chriftian in the World, Why then fhould not they plead, that they have the Spirit of God as well as any of those among profefs'd Christians, who have the greatest Dexteri ty this Way?

I know my own Natural and acquired Abilities in Concert, will reach as far in this particular Art as those of other Men; I have had Experience of those admired Enthusiastical Heats and Raptures, and it may be can command Scripture Expreffions with as great a Freedom,as thofe, who are moft idoliz'd among the Adverfaries of our Church: But I am fure, in the mean Time, that God's Spirit influences me no more in all this,than it influences thofe who are my Auditors,and that is, fo far as He bleffes me with Sincerity of Heart, without which, in Spite of all my Volubility of Fancy and Language, I am but as founding Brafs and as a tinkling Cymbal And I am as fure, that the poor weak Chriftian, whose natural Slownefs won't let him pray without the Affiftance of a Book, may by the Concurrence of Divine Grace, be as fincere and hearty, and as well accepted in his Prayers as I. And farther yet, no fuch Fluency of Thoughts or Words can ever make me fo vain or filly, as to imagine, that even I my felf could not upon ferious Study, correct these fudden and lefs digested Effufions, and make my Prayers more

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exact and suitable to the incomprehenfible Majefty of that awful Being, to whom I speak. Nor yet can I be eafily brought to believe, but that the Paftors and Governors of that Church, of which I, at beft, am but one inconfiderable Member, when met together, and confulting and advising seriously upon the Matter before them, and imploring fervently the Support and Help of the Holy Ghoft, must be able to compofe far better Prayers, Supplications, Interceffions and Thanksgivings, than my fingle Studies or private Meditations can ever attain to. All which, as it is indifputably agreeable to Truth and Reason, it will follow as rationally, according to the Declaration of the Prophet, I must incur a dreadful Curfe, If, having a Male in my Flock, Ifhould dare to offer my Maker an unclean Thing, i. e. If having a better, a more complete and perfect Sacrifice of Prayer prepared for me to offer to him, I fhould go about to put him off, with the weak Conceptions of my own Brain.

If we would but look carefully into the History of our own Church and Nation, we should find, that thofe very Common-Prayers, which are fo much undervalued and defpifed by our haughty Enthufiafts, were yet the principal Means under God, by which this Nation was recover'd from the more than Egyptian Darkness of Popery and Ignorance to the glorious Light of truly Apoftolical Chriftianity: For in the Dawn of the Reformation, there were but few, who were able to compofe Sermons, fuch Things having been little us'd among the Papifts before, Those great Parishes, even in this mighty City, which were blefs'd with Priefts, who were able to Preach to them once a Month were look'd npon

upon as invidiously happy. From the general Incapacity of fuch Parish-Priefts, as were willing to join in the Reformation, the more Learned Divines, fuch as Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and afterwards Jewel, Parker, and other eminent Bifhops and Presbyters found it neceflary to compofe and publish thofe excellent Homilies to be read to their People by fuch Parish-Priefts as could not make fuch Difcourfes' themselves. And fome of the most eminent Divines and Preachers about the Court were, in Edward the VIth's Time, fent out, as fo many itinerant Apostles, to Preach the almost forgotten Gofpel among the poor ignorant Country-men. But all this while the Common-Prayers of the Church were every where publickly read by fuch, as were lawfully ordain'd to that Work; and in fome Places, Men of pious and devout Tempers, tho' but Laymen, were allow'd to read them, till fuch Times as the Places could be fupply'd by a lawful and a learned Priesthood; and God was pleased so to accept that humble Sacrifice of Common-Prayers and Praises, that the Ufe of them in a few Years gave fuch a Blow to Popery, as all the long Extempore Prayers of our Separatifts to God, and all our plaufible Harangues to Men, have never been able to equal fince.

But, as for that so much admired Faculty of Praying Extempore, or as fome will needs have it, of Praying by the Spirit; He who but feriously reads the Story of that bold Blafphemer Hacket,and his Companions Coppinger and Arthington in the Days of Queen Elizabeth; of thofe famou Female Impoftors, Mrs. Dyer, and Mrs. Hutchinfon among the Independents in New England of later Years; He whe fhould confider VOL. II. thofe

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thofe Stories well, would be apt to fear, that That great Readiness they pretended to in unpremeditated Prayer proceeded not from the Holy Spirit, but from the Prince of the Power of the Air, that Spirit which now works in the Children of Difobedience. But if we look into the Authentick Accounts of an Incident within our own Memory, in the Perfon of one Major Weir (an Army Officer in Cromwell's Time ;) that alone may be enough to fatisfy us that the Devil fometimes imposes upon Men under the Disguise of an Angel of Light, and makes them believe, that they are honouring God, when they are only bowing down to, and worshiping him. Major Weir was burnt alive publickly. at Edinburgh in Scotland, in the Year 1670. He was prov'd by others, and confess'd himself, guilty of Adultery, Incest, Buggery, and of actually engaging in Covenant with the Devil: And yet he had been long admired as a Saint: He was a zealous Declaimer againft Epifcopacy, and against all stated Forms of Prayer, and had fuch an extraordina ry Faculty of Praying himself, that the most fluent Conventicle-Preachers in that Kingdom were abundantly inferior to him; fo that many came long Journeys from other Parts, only that they might be fo happy as to hear him, and to join with him in Prayer. And, yet at laft, when he came to die for his other enormous Crimes, tho' he dy'd defperate of all Mercy from God, he freely confefs'd, that he was inspired, not by God, but by the Devil, with whom he had long enter'd into a Confederacy, and who di&tated to him both the Matter and the Words

villiac. re- which he exprefs'd himfelf by, in Prayer. The divivum. Story of the Life and Death of this monftrous

Wretch