when he is there, he need not be in Pain for what the Performance is like to be, he need not be distracted in his Attention, nor di verred from good Affection, by confidering whether the Prayer be right and good before he fays Amen to it; for all this Inconvenience and Prejudice to Devotion is prevented, by being already acquainted with the publick Forms of Prayer.

3. Hereby alfo the Unity and Communion of the Church is beft maintained. For one thing wherein the Unity and Communion of the Church confifts, is her praying for the fame Bleffings in all her publick Affemblies. But what Security could be had of this were there no publick Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving? What Security that the publick Affemblies of the fame Church, of the fame Body of Chriftians under their common Governors, that they, I fay, who fhould be united in their Prayers, do not in many Cafes contradict one another? What Affurance can we give the Catholick Church, that our publick Service is fuch as all good Chriftians in the World may join with us in, if we had no Liturgy to fhew, if our Service was all left to private Invention and uncertain Performance?

Upon these Accounts publick fet Prayers are greatly preferable before the Liberty of every Man's praying as he can or will, as his Skill or his Honefty will ferve him.

And

And whereas fome complain of the Church's impofing a Liturgy, I do not fee but the Complainers are more guilty of impofing than the Church can be; for all that the Authority of the Church imposes is a fettled, conftant Form of publick Prayer, composed by grave and wife Men, and publickly expofed to the Judgment of all; but it is another fort of Impofition which fuch Men are liable to be charged with, and that is, that they do impose every Man his own Prayer upon the Congregation in which they minifter, and every one of them a new Prayer, as near as he can, every time that he officiates; for all the while their Prayers are Forms to thofe that join with them, whofe Spirits, if they attend, are ftinted co what their Mafters fay. Now methinks they by no means fhould complain of a publick Form of Prayer, deliberately compofed by an Affembly of good and holy Men, publickly expofed to the Judgment of Mankind, and fet forth by great Authority, who put upon the People every Man his own Prayers, not well confidered and premeditated by themselves, nor published to be confidered and examined by others, and every Week, or oftner perhaps, a new Prayer of this Kind; for certainly thefe Men are the greatest Impofers of all.

2dly, To pray by Forms hath the Advantage of the other Kind of praying, in Families alfo; this might be fhewn upon diverse Accounts, but one Confideration fhall fuffice, that hath been mentioned already in behalf of publick Forms of Prayer, and that is this, that the whole Family being well acquainted with the Prayers that are wont to be used, are always well prepared to go along with them, and their Devotion need not be diverted by expecting new Petitions, which they have not yet heard, nor made any Judgment of; thus alfo the Prayer will be beft fecured from indecent Expreffion, from Incoherence, from Hefitation, and from Weakness unbecoming a Man when he speaks to the Majefty of God. "If it be faid that extemporary praying beft provides for the feveral Emergencies in a Family, that are juft Occafions for Prayer or giving of Thanks; I anfwer, that Variety of Forms, and no great. Variety neither, may ferve this Need well enough; and it is no difficult Matter to provide for fuch Occafions by Premeditation; and when they are fo fudden that there is no Time for that, then an extemporary Prayer is very good, and comes in its right place,

3dly, (And with that I fhall have done) I will not doubt to fay that the Advantage is on the Side of ufing Forms, even in our Clofets, and that for this reafon, because

the

the Mind may more closely attend, and more devoutly affect it felf, when it hath nothing else to do, than when it hath that to do, and to invent befides. As to the Suddennefs of Mens Circumftances, which may require new Confeffions, Petitions and Thanksgivings, which a Form or two cannot provide for, the Anfwer given under the foregoing Head will ferve the Turn, to wit, that more Forms, or at least a due Premeditation, may fuffice in this Cafe; and here also sudden Emergencies will require and bear fudden Prayers.

That which I have faid upon these two last Points feems to be plain and strong for the Purpose intended. And there was this Reafon for taking this juft Occasion to say thus much concerning the Advantage of Forms in Family and Clofet Prayer; That feveral mistaken People being perfuaded that to pray by a Form is ufelefs and unprofitable, and that God is pleased with none but extemporary Prayers, and finding all the while that they have not Underftanding, and Invention, and Utterance enough to pray without a Form, are under Temptation not to pray in their Families or Closets at all. Of fo bad a Confequence is the Mistake of advancing the Raptures of extemporary Prayers, and difgracing the Ufe of Forms; a Mistake fo remote from the Truth, that on the other hand the Use

of

of Forms is to be preferred before extemporary Effufions, even where a Man hath the Ability of the latter.

And therefore I may well defire all honeft and good Chriftians to like even their private Prayers never the worse, but rather the better, for their praying by a Book, or ufing of those Forms that are composed by others, which they find fuitable to their own Needs and Circumftances.

In a word, It is not the Labour of the Invention that God requires in order to the Acceptance of our Prayers, but an honest Heart, and a fincere Affection towards him, and a full Purpose to behave our felves in our Lives anfwerably to what we defire of him in our Prayers, and to our Pretences to praise him; for thefe are the Things that are valuable in God's Account, and which will make our Prayers effectual, fo that God will hear us, and anfwer our Requests, and do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

And fo much by way of Preface to the most excellent Form of Prayer that ever was compofed.

SER