And that it is no such common guilt, will seem more probable to them that consider, that such conceived Prayers, both prepared and extemperate, have been ordinarily used in the Pulpits in England, and Scotland, before our days till now, and there hath been power enough in the Bishops and others, before the Wars, to punish those that speak Ridiculously, Seditiously, Impiously, or Blasphemously; And yet so few are the Instances (even when jealousy was most busy) of Ministers punished, or once accused of any such fault in Prayer, as that we find it not easy to remember any considerable number of them: There being great numbers punished for not reading the ⟨p. 74⟩Book, for playing on the Lords days, or for preaching too oft, and such like, for one that was ever questioned for such kind of praying. And the former showed that it was not for want of will to be severe, that they spared them as to the latter. And if it be but few that are guilty of any intolerable faults of that nature in their Prayers, we hope you will not go on to believe, that the mischiefs that come by the failings of those few, are far greater than the benefit of conceived prayer by all others. We presume not to make our Experiences, the measure of yours, or of other mens. You may tell us what doth most good, or hurt to your selves, and those that have so communicated their Experiences to you; But we also may speak our own, and theirs that have discovered them to us. And we must seriously profess, that we have found far more benefit to our selves, and to our Congregations (as far as our Conference, and Converse with them, and our observation of the effects alloweth us to discern) by conceived Prayers, than by the Common-Prayer-book, We find that the benefit of conceived Prayer is to keep the mind in serious Employment, and to awaken the affections, and to make us fervent, and importunate, And the Inconvenience is that some weak men are apt as in Preaching and Conference, so in Prayer to show their weakness, by some unapt Expressions, or disorder, Which is an evil no way to be compared, with the fore-mentioned.
And that it is no such common guilt, will seem more probable to them that consider, that such conceived Prayers, both prepared and extemperate, have been ordinarily used in the Pulpits in England, and Scotland, before our dayes till now, and there hath been power enough in the Bishops and others, before the Wars, to punish those that speak Ridiculously, Seditiously, Impiously, or Blasphemously; And yet so few are the Instances (even when jealousie was most busy) of Ministers punished, or once accused of any such fault in Prayer, as that we find it not easy to remember any considerable number of them: There being great numbers punished for not reading the ⟨p. 74⟩Book, for playing on the Lords dayes, or for preaching too oft, and such like, for one that was ever questioned for such kind of praying. And the former shewed that it was not for want of will to be severe, that they spared them as to the latter. And if it be but few that are guilty of any intolerable faults of that nature in their Prayers, we hope you will not go on to believe, that the mischiefs that come by the failings of those few, are far greater than the benefit of conceived prayer by all others. We presume not to make our Experiences, the measure of yours, or of other mens. You may tell us what doth most good, or hurt to your selves, and those that have so communicated their Experiences to you; But we also may speak our own, and theirs that have discovered them to us. And we must seriously profess, that we have found far more benefit to our selves, and to our Congregations (as far as our Conference, and Converse with them, and our observation of the effects alloweth us to discern) by conceived Prayers, than by the Common-Prayer-book, We find that the benefit of conceived Prayer is to keep the mind in serious Employment, and to awaken the affections, and to make us fervent, and importunate, And the Inconvenience is that some weak men are apt as in Preaching and Conference, so in Prayer to shew their weaknesse, by some unapt Expressions, or disorder, Which is an evil no way to be compared, with the fore-mentioned.
