A discourse of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer with a brief…

2. All the Examples we have in the Scripture of the Prayers of the Holy men of Old, either under the Old Testament or the New, were all of them the effects of their own Ability in expressing the gracious Conceptions of their minds, wrought in them by the Holy Ghost in the way and ⟨p. 129⟩manner before described. I call it their own Ability, in opposition to all outward Aids and Assistances From others, or an antecedaneous prescription of a Form of Words unto themselves. Not one Instance can be given to the contrary. Sometimes it is said, they spread forth their Hands, sometimes that they listed up their voices, sometimes that they fell upon their knees and cried; sometimes that they poured out their Hearts when overwhelmed, all according unto present occasions and circumstances. The Solemn Benediction of the Priests instituted of God, like the present Forms in the Administration of the Sacraments, were of another Consideration, as shall be showed. And as for those who by immediate Inspiration gave out and wrote discourses in the form of Prayers, which were in part Mystical, and in part Prophetical, we have before given an Account concerning them. Some plead indeed, that the Church of the Jews under the Second Temple had sundry Forms of Prayers in use among them, even at the time when our Saviour was conversant in the Temple and their Synagogues. But they pretend and plead what they cannot prove; and I challenge any Learned man to give but ⟨p. 129⟩a tolerable Evidence unto the Assertion. For what is found to that purpose among the Talmudists, is mixed with such ridiculous fables (as the first, suiting the number of their Prayers to the number of the Bones in the back of a man) as fully defeats its own Evidence.

2. All the Examples we have in the Scripture of the Prayers of the Holy men of Old, either under the Old Testament or the New, were all of them the effects of their own Ability in expressing the gracious Conceptions of their minds, wrought in them by the Holy Ghost in the way and ⟨p. 129⟩manner before described. I call it their own Ability, in opposition to all outward Aids and Assistances From others, or an antecedaneous prescription of a Form of Words unto themselves. Not one Instance can be given to the contrary. Sometimes it is said, they spread forth their Hands, sometimes that they listed up their voices, sometimes that they fell upon their knees and cryed; sometimes that they poured out their Hearts when overwhelmed, all according unto present occasions and circumstances. The Solemn Benediction of the Priests instituted of God, like the present Forms in the Administration of the Sacraments, were of another Consideration, as shall be shewed. And as for those who by immediate Inspiration gave out and wrote discourses in the form of Prayers, which were in part Mystical, and in part Prophetical, we have before given an Account concerning them. Some plead indeed, that the Church of the Jews under the Second Temple had sundry Forms of Prayers in use among them, even at the time when our Saviour was conversant in the Temple and their Synagogues. But they pretend and plead what they cannot prove; and I challenge any Learned man to give but