The Life of Faith. j2i And if another man hear a form of prayer, efpecially if it be read out ofa Book; and cfpecially if it have any diforder or defed, he (licketh not to revile ir, and call it falfe Worfhip, and mans Inventions, and perhaps Idolatry, and to fly from ir, and make the worldbelieve, that it is an odious thingwhich God abhorreth. And why fo ? Areyour words fo much moreex- cellent than the words of others T Or doth the Book, or Prof?, or Pen, make them odious to God ? Or are all words bad which arc refolved on before-hand? Is the Lords Prayer and the Pfalms all odious, bccaufe they are book forms ? Or doth the command of other men make God hate them ? Let Pa- rents takeheed then of commanding their children prcfcribed -words. (Nay rather let them take heed WI they omit fuch prefcripts :) Or, is it the diforder or defefs that makes them odious? Such arcnot to be ju(4ifiedindeed where -ever we find. them : But woe to us all, if God will notpardon difordors and defeas, and accept the prayers that arc guilty of them. Many a time I have heard fuch forms of prayers, whole difordcrs and defe6ts I have much lamented (and done my part to have cured) and yet I dur(l not fo reproach them as to fay, Godwill not accept and hear them : Or that it is un- lawful to joyn in communion with them. And many a time I have heard as fad diforder in extemporatc prayers fome- times by wrongmethods, or no method at all ; fometimes by vain repetitions ; f©metimes by omitting the chief-ell parts of prayer, and fometimes in the whole (}rein, by turninga prayer into a Sermon to the hearers, or a weer talk or narrative to God, that had little ofa prayer in ir, favc very good matter, and hone(i zeal. And though this prayer was more difor- derly than the forms which (perhaps in that Prayer) were ac- cured ofdiforder ; yet durfl I not run awayfrom this neither, nor fay, it is fo bad, that God will not hear it, nor good mca (hould have no comunion in it. It is calk (but abominable) to fall in love with our em; and tovilifie that which is againfi our epinicu, and to think that God is of our mind, and is as fond of our mode andway as we arc,and as exceptions again(i the way or words ofother men, as childith, pievith Chri(lians are. Look on your Book, and read, or learn your prayer in words, faith one, or elf* Lluu God
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