108 A GUIDE TO PRAYER. our thoughts and affections ; and while we bind ourselvès f6 those words only, we clamp our inward devotion, and prevent the holy fire from kindling within us; we discourage our active powers and passions from running out on divine subjects, and . check the breathings of our souls heaven-ward. The wise man tells us, Prov. xiv. 10. The heart knorceth his own bitterness: and a stranger doth not in termeddle with his joy. There are secret joys; and unknown bitternesses, which the holy soul longs to spread before God, and for which itcannot find any exact and correspondent expressions in the best of prayer-books ; now must such a christian suppress all those thoughts and forbid hirpselfall that sweet conversation with his God, because it is not written down in the appointed form? 2: The thoughts and affections of the heart that are truly pious and sincere, are wrought in us by the Spirit of God, and if we deny them utterance because they are not found in prayer- books,_ we run the danger of resisting the Holy Ghost, quenching the Holy Spirit, and fighting against the kind designs 'of God towards us, which we are so expressly cautioned against ; I These. v. 19. and which a humble çhristian trembles to think of. 3. A confinement to forms cramps and imprisons those powers, that God bath given us for improvement and use; it silences our natural abilities, and forbids them to act ; and it puts a barupon our spiritualfaculties, and prevents their growth. To satisfy ourselves with mere forms, to confine ourselves wholly to them, and neglect to stir up and improve our oren gifts, is one kind of spiritual sloth, and highly to be disapproved. It is hiding a talent in the earth, which God has given us on purpose to carry on a trade with heaven. It is an abuse of our knowledge of di- vine things, to neglect the use of it in our converse with God. It is as if a man that had once used crutches to support him when he was feeble, would always usethem or because he has some- times found his own thoughts happily expressed in conversa- tion by another person, therefore he will assent to what that other person shall always speak and never speakhis own thoughts himself. 4. It leads us into the danger of hypocrisy and mere lip-ser- vice. Sometimes we shall be tempted to express those things which are not the very thoughts of' our own souls, and so use Words that are not suited to our present wants, or sorrows, or re- quests ; because those words are put together, and made ready beforehand. 5. The confinement of ourselves to a form, though it is not always attended with formality and indifference, yet it is very apt to make our spirits cold and flat, formal and indifferent in our devotion. The frequent repetition of the same words do not always awaken the same affections in our hearts, which perhais
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