without reason, that he is fully assured of the truth of it, yea that he hath very good grounds for it, or else he would not dare to utter it to the face of God himself. And thus the confidence of the minister easily at first begets in the simple hearer a good opinion of it, which by degrees grows to a steadfast belief and persuasion.

But now, on the other side, set forms of prayer, composed and prescribed by the wisdom of the church, are an excellent defence and security against innovations in faith. For to be sure the church will take care that her Liturgy and Common Prayers shall not contradict or interfere with her Articles of Religion, but rather confirm them, and by prudent methods insinuate the knowledge and belief of them into the hearers. Indeed the ancient Liturgies were so framed, that they were a kind of systems of orthodox divinity, and antidotes against heresy. And in this the Liturgy of our church comes behind none of the ancient Liturgies. For therein we are obliged to confess the faith of all the ancient creeds. more especially our frequent doxologies to the most holy and ever-blessed Trinity do abundantly secure us against Arianism and Socinianism, the prevailing heresies of our unhappy times, and of all other heresies the most dangerous. In short, no heretic can heartily join in the offices of prayer and praise, and confessions of faith, prescribed in the Liturgy of our church.

But

But on the other side, in those congregations where there is no prescribed Liturgy, or office of public prayer, no creed or confession of faith to be rehearsed, all sorts of heretics may easily, and without discovery, find shelter to themselves. Which is

one and the main reason, I doubt not, why at this day the Arians and Socinians among us are all declared enemies to the public worship of the church of England, as it is by law established, and shake hands with the dissenters. For they know full well, that as long as our Liturgy stands, their heresies can never prevail; all the members of our church being obliged in their daily public devotions solemnly to declare against those heresies.

I shall conclude all with a word or two of application.

1. From what hath been said, we may take occasion, and we have very good ground and reason, to reprove the gross error and folly of those, who are against all set and prescribed forms of prayer in the public worship of God, and upon the account of such forms used in our church, separate from the communion of it.

These men must upon the same account have been separatists and schismatics, if they had lived in any other settled church of Christ since the days of the apostles. For you have seen, that this order and injunction given to bishop Timothy in my text, to take care, and provide by his authority, that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks, should be made for all men, in all the churches and congregations under his care and inspection, was observed by him, and all the other bishops of the primitive church, by causing such forms of prayer to be made and composed for the use of their several churches; and that accordingly the same order of the apostle was observed after the same manner in the catholic church throughout all succeeding ages. The exercise of the public worship being never in

any age of the church (before this latter age of innovation) permitted and intrusted to the discretion and abilities of every private minister.

So that to those who cry up the private conceptions, or extemporary effusions of their ministers, in opposition to set forms of prayer, prescribed by the wisdom of the church in the public worship of God, we may answer with the apostle, 1 Cor. xi. 16. We have no such custom, nor the churches of God. And if this be not a good and satisfactory answer, they must be so daring as to say, that the great apostle of Christ was mistaken in his logic, and argued from a wrong and fallacious topic.

And whereas they pretend they cannot edify by such set forms of prayer, nor find any warmth of devotion in the use of them, they do thereby represent themselves under a very ill character, that they are men of a spirit and temper very disagreeable and different from that spirit that hath always governed the catholic church of Christ. They cannot heartily serve and worship God in such a way as the primitive confessors and martyrs, and all good Christians for many succeeding ages did.

But I will not be so severe as to condemn all those as no good Christians who make this plea. I do not doubt but some of them are men of good intentions, and pious dispositions and affections; and if they had not been prejudiced and imposed upon by their deluding teachers, they would have been of another temper. But they have been taught by those deceivers, that prescribed forms of prayer are a stinting of the Spirit; their heads have been filled with harangues and discourses concerning the gift and spirit of prayer, which, they have been told, consists,

not only in pious and holy affections, but also in a variety and volubility of words and expressions; and consequently, that a set form of prayer and the spirit of prayer are inconsistent; which is in effect to say, that a man cannot make use of any of the penitential Psalms, nor any other forms of prayer or praise in the divine Book of Psalms, no nor rehearse even the Lord's Prayer itself, with the spirit of prayer; which to affirm is the height of madness.

But the poor souls labouring under this prejudice, it is no wonder if they flee from our Liturgy, as from a serpent or scorpion; no wonder that, when they are forced occasionally to be present at it, they are not at all affected with it; nay, on the contrary, find an aversation of their spirits from it.

Woe be to the men that have thus abused those poor souls, or rather those precious souls, for whom our Lord Christ died, and shed his most precious blood! that by such silly pretences have drawn them into schism, and a sinful separation from the communion of the best of churches.

But there are some of our dissenters that pretend that they are not against all set forms of prayer, nor do they dislike our Liturgy, merely as it is a set and prescribed form of prayer; but because there are some, yea very many things in it that are not agreeable to the word of God, and to which therefore they cannot assent. Now to these men all that I have at present to say is this, I will not be so lavish or extravagant in the praise of our Liturgy, as to say it is an absolutely perfect form of prayer, or so good as not to be capable in some respects to be made better; for this were in effect to say, it is more than a human composition: but this I do aver, that there

is no passage in it, but what admits of a fair and candid interpretation; that there is nothing in it directly sinful, or such as that upon the account thereof a man might justify his separation from the communion of our church. This hath been again and again unanswerably proved by the learned men of our church. And as to the main body of our Liturgy, it is a most excellent office and form of prayer, most agreeable to the holy Scriptures, that comes nearest to the primitive Liturgies; and, in a word, is the best Liturgy at this day extant in the Christian world.

But indeed it is a mere pretence of our dissenters when they say they are not against a set and prescribed form of prayer in the public worship, and that they only dislike some passages in our Liturgy. For if this were true, why do they not in their congregations use our Liturgy, omitting those passages in it, at which they pretend to be offended? Or at least, why do they not compose a Liturgy of their own? It is plain therefore and evident, that they are really against all set and prescribed forms of prayer in the public worship, be they otherwise never so blameless; and consequently that they oppose therein the consent and the unanimous practice of the catholic church of Christ.

This I had to say to our dissenters.

But,

2. What we have said concerning prescribed forms of prayer as always from the days of the apostles used in all settled churches of Christ, may administer abundant satisfaction and confirmation to all that adhere to the communion of the church of England, and consequently to the Liturgy and form of prayer prescribed in that church.