400 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. posedform. And I am well assured the blessed Spirit of God neither confines his sacred influences to those who worship with- out forms, nor withholds it from those who use them. Both have need of this aid, and I am persuaded both do partake of it. Indeed in the use of forms, there is no need of binding our- selves to a whole page together, as it stands in the book. In the name of God, let us stand fast in our christian liberty, and main- tain a just freedom of soul in our addresses to heaven ; let us change, enlarge or contract, let us add or omit, according to our peculiar sentiments, or our present frame of spirit. Mr. Jenks, a pious divine of the church of England, has written an excellent treatise of the liberty of prayer, which I dare recommend to every sort of reader. But when we find the temper, the wants and the wishes of our hearts so happily expressed in the words of the composer, as that we know not how to frame other words so suitable and so expressive of our own present state and case, why should we not address our God and our Saviour in this bor- rowed language ? I confess indeed, when long custom has induced a sort of flatness into these sounds, how happily soever the words might be at first chosen, then perhaps we shall want something new and variousto keep nature awake to the devotion. Or if we still confine ourselves entirely to the forms we read, and forbid our spirits to exert their own pious sentiments, we turn these engines of holy elevation into clogs and fetters. But when christians make a prudent Use of them, they have fre- quently experienced unknown advantage and delight. A dull and heavy hour in the closet has been relieved by the use of such devout composures of mingled meditation and prayer; and many a dry and barren heart has been enabled to offer up the first - fruits of a sweet sacrifice to God in the words of another man. The fire of devotion has been kindled by the help of some serious and pathetic forms, and the spirit of the worshipper, which has been straitened and bound up in itself,, has found a blessed release by the pen of some pious writer. The wings of the soul have been first expanded towards God and heaven by some happy turn of fervent and holy language; she has been lifted up by this assistance above the earth and mortality ; then she has given herself a more unconfined and various flight in the upper regions, she has traversed the heavenly world, she has felt herself within the circle of divine attraction, and has dwelt an hour with God. The good man Bohemus had warmed his imagination a little by this vivid manner of representing the argument. His soul catched fire, was seized with a sacred enthusiasm, and broke out in the following transport.
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