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Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1828. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... by ordinary assistance. And now, then, what greater confidence can any man have for the excellency of his prayers, and the probability of their being accepted, than when he prays his psalter, or the Lord''s prayer, or any other office which he finds consigned in Scripture? When God''s Spirit stirs us up to an actual devotion, and then we use the matter he hath described and taught, and the very words which Christ, and Christ''s Spirit, and the apostles and other persons full of the Holy Ghost, did use; if in the world there be any praying with the spirit, I mean, in vocal prayer, this is it. 50. And thus I have examined the entire and full scope of this first question, and rifled their objection, which was the only colour to hide the appearance of its natural deformity at the first sight. The result is this: Scribendum, ergo, quoties licebit: si id non dabitur, cogitandum: ab utroque exclusi, debent tamen adniti, ut neque deprehensus orator, neque litigator destitutus esse videaturh: In making our orations and public advocations, we must write what we mean to speak, as often as we can; when we cannot, yet we must deliberate and study; and when the suddenness of the accident prevents both these, we must use all the powers of art and care, that we have a present mind, and call in all our first provisions, that we be not destitute of matter and words apt for the employment. This was Quintilian''s rule for the matter of prudence, and in secular occasions; but when the instance is in religion, and especially in our prayers, it will concern us nearer to be curious and deliberate what we speak in the audience of the eternal God, when our lives and our souls, and the honour of God, and the reputation of religion, are concerned, and whatsoever is greatest in its...
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