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to God, whether in refpect of Matter, or Words, or the Affiftance of God's Spirit to wards a devout Temper of Mind,~ As to the Matter, they who deny this Prayer to be a prefcribed Form, yet grant it (as I have faid) to be a Rule of what we are to pray for. What reafon fome have to be fure that the Matter of their extemporary Prayers is fuggefted by the Spirit, let them fee to that; but we are fure that thofe Things we pray for in the Lord's Prayer are fuggefted by the holy Spirit, not indeed by immediate Infpiration, but (which is as well) by the Mouth of the Lord himself, in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelleth Bodily, Col. 2. 9. If the Words and Expreffions of Prayer be confiderable, can we hope to prefent unto the Father Words more acceptable than those which his Son hath taught us? As to inward Devotion, fhall we think that if we bring an honest and fincere Intention, the Spirit of God, whofe Defign it is to glorify Chrift, will be lefs ready to infpire us with devout Affection when we use the Words of Chrift, than when we devife Words of our own? Or fhall we not rather believe that he is more ready to affift us when we dare not omit this Prayer, than if we fhould prefume to offer up others without it? Thefe are very plain Truths, to fay them is to prove them, and they need not be infifted on any farther.

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And now because it is in behalf of extemporary Prayers that this Form of our Lord's own compofing and prescribing hath been brought under Difpute, I proceed in the

Second place to confider the Question concerning Forms of Prayer and extemporary Effufions more at large, and to fee whether it was worth the while to raise Prejudices against the former in behalf of the latter. Now the State of the Queftion is not,

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1. Whether upon any Occafion it be lawful or not to use other Prayers than compofed Forms? For we readily grant that upon fome Occafions of Prayer it is not only lawful, but neceffary to utter Prayers con ceived extempore, if a Man prays at all; for inftance, one may find himself overtaken by a fudden Danger, or oppreffed by a fudden Calamity, which will enforce him to betake himself forthwith to his Prayers, and the Cafe will not tarry for the Contrivance of a fet Form of Prayer for that Purpose; in fuch á Cafe as this we fhould talk against the natural and common Sense we have of Things, to make it either unlawful or not convenient for him to pray unto God for fuch Help and Grace as the Cafe requires, and in fuch Expreffions as the Presence of his Invention could furnish him with; and therefore they suppose a wrong State of the Question that ask us, what we would have Men do when they are furprized by a dangerous

gerous Fall, or a fudden Fear of burning or drowning, or the like? What would we have them to do? Why, let them in these, and all the like fudden, dangerous, and unforeseen Emergencies, that make it needful for them to pray, either for themselves or others, let them, I fay, call upon God as earnestly as they can to help and deliver them, to forgive their Sins, and to bestow upon them what Things their Cafe makes it neceffary or requifite for them to defire. Thefe fudden Occafions of Prayer are not the Subject of the Question, but the conftant and ordinary Devotions of Chriftians, that return at their stated Times, and that will admit of Premeditation both for the Matter and the Words of Prayer; and the Question, whether our Prayer fhould be uttered in a Form of Words known beforehand, is concerning thefe Occafions of Prayer, not thofe that are uncertain, and cannot be foreseen; and yet when fuch Cafes happen, Men fhould be rather advised to speak their Defires in a few natural and hearty Requests, than in a Multitude of Words, as if they affected to fhew their Skill, how long they could fpeak to God upon a fhort Warning out of the Stock of pure Invention; and it is no queftion but a religi ous holy Man would in fuch Cafes deliver himself in fuch Words, without the Labour

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of the Invention, as the Senfe of his own Condition would easily supply him with.

2. And even as to the ordinary and conftant Returns of Prayer, the Question is not, Whether it be in it felf unlawful to pray otherwise than in a fet Form of Words; for that it is unlawful in it felf to offer a Prayer of extemporary Conception and Utterance in our ordinary Devotions, I find neither Reafon nor Authority fufficient to affirm: 'Tis true the affuming of that Liberty may be unlawful by reason of the Affectation and Vanity of him that prays, or of the Unreadinefs of his Invention, or the Slowness of his Utterance, or his rejecting good Forms of Prayer which he was bound to use, or fuch Reasons as these; but then altho' these Confiderations may make it unlawful to most Men, yet they do not fhew it to be unlawful in it felf, but only in fuch Circumftances, under fome one or other of which the generality of Men are.

But the true State of the Question concerning fet Forms and extemporary Inventions of Prayer I conceive to be this: Which is the most expedient? Which hath the greater Advantages? Which is to be preferred by a wife Man? Which best serves the Ends and Reasons, the Purposes and Intentions of Prayer? And truly if we confidered well the Difference between a Form and an extemporary Effufion of Prayer in

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the very Nature of the Thing, one would think it very ftrange that the latter should be preferred, for that were to fay that the Perfection of Prayer confifts in the Suddennefs and Rafhnefs of it, and that the lefs Care we take how we fpeak to God, as to Words, Matter, and Method, fo much the better we pray, and fo much the more acceptably, which were abfurd to fay.

But before I infift largely upon the Advantage of Forms, I fhall firft make answer to the more common and popular Objections against them, which are these three.

1. That the Spirit is ftinted by Forms of Prayer.

2. That Mens Spiritual Gifts of Prayer do decay and are loft by the Use of Forms.

3. That People are not fo much affected with fet Forms of Prayer, as with Variety and Newness of Words and Phrases.

1. That in Forms of Prayer the Spirit is ftinted, which (as it is pretended) is a great Disadvantage to him that performs this Duty, and therefore extemporary Prayer is by fome called by the Name of Free Prayer. Now this Objection is fo uncertainly urged, that one would think they who make it sometimes mean the Spirit of a Man, sometimes the Spirit of God, fometimes the Spirit of a Man affifted by the Spirit of God, which I take to be the most candid Conftruction; and be it fo taken, let us confi

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