Chriirs Ft( lne,and wee have not received? And fhall our Purfe or Veffell boar' it (elfe againft another, becaufe the Owner hash put more Gold, or more precious Lignor into it, than unto another,it may be of the fame, or a better worth ? Or (hall the wall which gliflereth with the Sunbeames exalt it (elfe againft another which Rands in the (hallow, as if it had Lufire from it felfe, and not borrowed from the Sun. 3. Let us be affefled as Receivers, in begging grace at Gods banal- by Prayer. Therefcre it is raid to be the Bucket of grace, audit is a true obfervation, that a man of much Prayer, is a man of much Grace . Now Prayer is either Private, or Publique : [Private, is that wherein we expreffe our private and particular occafions to God every day, wherein we renew Repentance and Covenants with God, of abftaining from the finnes we are molt prone to, and of doing the duties to which we are moil unapt, in a word, that wherein we doe every day fet our hearts fireight before God in all things. This is the very Life ofReligion, and in this we muff be very frequent and fervent, binding our felves with an inviolable refolution to keep a confiant courfe in it, but of this their is no doubt. [ The next is Publique Prayer, of which becaufe it is more queflioned and not received by all with that Reverence it (hould , I will adde a word or two of it, and con- clude. That a fet Forme of Prayer is Lawfull, much need not to be fetid, the very newneffe of the contrary opinion is enough to thew the vanity and falfeneffe of it : It being contrary to the Judgment of approved Council's, Learned Fathers, and the con - tinuall Praétice of the Church. Tertullian, who lived not much above an hundred yeares after the Apoftles death, faith in his Booke de Oratione, Pre - aoiffa Legitisna & ordinaria Oratione, Ius eft fuperftruendi Petitioner, &c. which fheweth that they had force ordinary fet allowed Prayers, to which, afterwards force were added at more Liberty, In Origen'r time, who lived very neere 7er- tullian s time : It is evident t hat there were fet Formes of Prayer ufed in the Church : for in his a a th Homily upon Ieremy, he repeateth and expoundeth Torre pafLges of them, upon which occafion Illirict?s faith. Trine temporis eertar quafdam formu- la
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