fear you suspect your Cause too much to leave it in those Hands You are sensible that an Hundred to One is great Odd's and know pretty well what a scurvy Reflexion 't is upon any Notion to say of it 'T is but one Docters Opinion and yet at last I think in your Case 't will hardly amount to that However your Hopes are in Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins Let us see then upon what Grounds these Hopes are founded and what support the Conventicle is like to find from those two Pillars of the Church I begin then with Bishop Hall and here what you alledge from him is from his Writings in Vindication of the Liturgy A very unlikely Book to condemn what it designs to Vindicate or to set up Free Prayer above Forms which the Author daily us'd and practis'd Himself But what is it that you Quote from him Why Writing in Vindication of the Liturgy you say he hath these Words This doth not plead against all present Conceptions in Prayer or Preaching nor derogate any thing from the Reveren'd and Pious esteem of conceiv'd Prayer And who saith it does in its due time and place Doubtless Sir if you can but distinguish between publick and private Prayer you will soon see the sense of that Reverend Bishop and your own mistake in this Matter He is pleading you say in that Book for a publick and standing Liturgy for the more solemn and decent performance of publick Worship and having learnedly evinced the expediency both of the Use and Injunction of it he subjoyns these Words This doth not plead c. Meaning that tho the publick Service of God be best celebrated by a set prescribed Liturgy that People may know their Prayers and more readily joyn in them yet there are Seasons of private and secret Devotion wherein they are allow'd the Freedom of their own Conceptions and Expressions And what wise Man ever thought or said otherwise So that this gives no help or countenance at all to your Cause But if that will not do you bring in that Reverend Bishop farther saying I do from my Soul honour both I gladly make use of both and praise God for them as the gracious exercises of Christian Piety and the Effectual furtherances of Salvation Doubtless says he in the next Page all Christian Divines have ever had that Liberty in all the Churches that have ever profest the Name of Christ neither ought or can it be denyed to any either of the Foreign Churches or our own In the former Words that Reverend Father had shew'd his Opinion in these he lets us know his Practice in this Matter which is that he honoured both publick and private Devotion and gladly made use of the publick Liturgy of the Church in the one and of his own Free and conceived Prayers in the other A pious and excellent Practice Which I know no Christian Church does Condemn and I heartily wish that all who profess the Name of Christ would imitate But what is this to your using and preferring your own sudden Conceptions in publick Worship before and against an establish'd Liturgy Where does that pious and reverend Prelate give the least countenance to Conventicles or seperate Meetings in Opposition to publick Orders and Constitutions Or set up Free Prayer as a Decoy to draw People from the set Prayers of the Church This I am well assured you will never find in the Writings of that or any other Bishop And yet you seem to glory in this Quotation as if it stubb'd up all Liturgies by the Root and that no Forms of Prayer could ever appear more or stand before it Is it not strange that Men who so little understand themselves should think themselves wiser than all their Superiours And thus take upon them to teach or rather to mislead and delude others Using all their Arts to bring the People out of love with the Prayers of the Church and seducing them from all the wholsome Orders and Constitutions of it Take heed Sir that your Artifices and Impostures be not too visible for many well meaning People begin to discern and smell them out and if they be too gross and palpable it may prove of very dangerous Consequence for tho' Great is Diana of the Ephesians was a profitable Cry while it lasted yet when the People saw the Vanity of the Idol there was an end of the Silver Shrines If you would know the true Sense and Mind of Bishop Hall in this Matter you may find it in that mild and moderate Book of his called The Peace-maker in which he goes as far as possible for an Accommodation Yet there you may read these Words Sect. 7. page 52. 53. We are far from giving way to every Combination of Christians to run aside and to raise up a new Church of their own and to challenge all the Privileges incident to a lawful Church of Christ as equally due to their Segregation for this were to build up Babel instead of Jerusalem Faciunt Favos et Vespae as he goes on even Wasps meet together in some holes of Earth or hollow Trees and make Combs as well as the profitable Bees but none ever thought them worthy of a Hive c. Where you see that Reverend Prelate's Opinion concerning Conventicles and separate Meetings which he stiles Segregations from the unity of the Church and running aside from the Orders and Privileges of it yea he compares those that haunt them to Wasps who though they meet in Corners are yet more pernicious than profitable where they Nest Again in the same Section you may find these Words It may not be endured that in matters of Religion every Man should think what he lists and utter what he thinks and defend what he utters and publish what he defends and gather Disciples to what he publisheth this Liberty or Licentiousness rather would be the Bane of any Church With much more to the same purpose And now what think you Sir is the Famous and Learned Bishop Hall a Friend to Separation and Extempore-Effusions in publick Worship Nay is he not a plain Enemy to all Confusion and Disorders of that Nature Does he not in that forecited Treatise passionately bewail these things as the Wounds and Blemishes of the Church And earnestly entreat and exhort all Christians against them This you will find at large if you will peruse that and many other of his pious Writings Thus you see how little you have got by this Quotation and how you have mist your Aim in bringing that Reverend Father to Countenance your Dreams and Delusions But you have one Twig more to hang by and that is the Authority of Bishop Wilkins How far that will hold shall be examined in my next with which if you have nothing more to offer I purpose to close up I am Sir Yours M. H. June 25 1697. LETTER XX. To J. M. SIR I Shewed in my last what little Countenance your Conventicles and Free
Prayer could find from the Authority of Bishop Hall I come now to see whether they are like to find any better from the Authority of Bishop Wilkins This is your last Refuge and if this Prop fails your Cause may be in some danger of Sinking What you alledge from him is out of a Book Intitled The Gift of Prayer from which I find you transcribing many passages upon all occasions In that Book the learned Author endeavour'd to reduce Free conceived Prayer into an Art a Design as himself acknowledges that was perfectly new and never attempted by any before him Now that must be acknowledg'd to be a very considerable prejudice to the Undertaking for new Devices and Inventions in Religion have been ever found to be very dangerous and all Churches have felt the Mischief and inconveniences of such Novelties He that walks in a new and untrodden Path may easily lose his Way and many by leaving the Antient Track have found themselves in the Briers Jer. 6.16 and therefore we are bid to Enquire for the old Ways and to walk in them it being much more safe to keep in the beaten Road of Antiquity than to seek out and wander in the By-paths of Innovations But to come to the Book We find that Great man in the Preface wondring that so little should be said or written on that Subject to help him in his Undertaking Now this Wonder may soon cease by calling to mind that all Christian Churches in all times and places perform'd their Publick Worship by Set prescribed Forms and so as there was no use so neither was there any need of this Artificial Gift which is a sufficient Reason of the Silence of Antiquity about it But when this Art began to be studied and put in practice it soon became an Instrument of Division and is at this day one of the principal Wiles and Artifices of Seducers Accordingly therefore this Great man finding the bad Effects of this new Experiment in Divinity and observing how greedily it was catch'd at and abus'd by Sectaries thought fit to abandon this New Art without adding improving or so much as correcting the Imperfections of it and He himself to his dying day became a constant frequenter of the Publick Prayers of the Church and likewise according to the Duty of his Office strictly kept his Clergy to them But the better to clear up this Matter you must consider Sir the Time of the writing of that Book together with the Occasion and End for which 't was written and then you will soon see what little stress is to be laid upon it For the Time of writing it 't was when the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England were by a prevailing Faction laid aside and all godly Forms of Prayer decry'd at which time a whole Deluge of Errors and new Opinions broke in upon us and by the help of Free Prayer were vented and spread abroad to the great increase of Sects and Schisms among us By this means Men lost the Reverence that is due to the Divine Majesty bespeaking him in a loose careless and indecent manner and the Solemnity of Prayer was prostituted to vile and secular purposes Now to remedy those Evils this Great Man wrote this Book to direct Men in this Duty when they were deprived of the Assistance of Forms and to preserve if possible some Sense in their Prayers at a time when there was so little of it to be heard Moreover if we consider the manner and model drawn up by this Reverend Person for this purpose we shall find it in effect to be This. When one sort of Forms were cryed down he endeavoured to bring up another that is when Book-Forms were removed by the subtlety of Designing Men p. 11. he endeavoured to set up Mental-Forms or repeating their Prayers by memory which he stiles An invisible Book for the Register of our Thoughts hoping thereby to keep up that sense and seriousness that was requisite in this Duty there being but little difference as he tells us betwixt Repeating by memory and Reading out of a Book That this was the main drift of the Author in that Book appears by these following things First p. 10. He forbid's Men to depend altogether upon sudden Suggestions or Effusions as if it were A Quenching or Confinement of the Spirit to be furnished before-hand with Matter and Expressions for this Service p. 13. In another place he requires them To prepare themselves by study and premeditation for this Duty that is as appears by what is mentioned before to lay up both Matter and Words in their Memory for the more decent and orderly performance of it Again p. 3. 18 he condemns leavning these things to suddain Infusion which occasions Mens bespeaking God Almighty in a loose and careless manner Furthermore he would have them settle and compose their Thoughts or fix these things in their Memory p. 19. for the more solemn performance of this Duty that they may the better avoid all idle impertinent and wild Expressions the usual Embellishments of Extempore-Prayer Secondly p. 17. He condemns all Affectation of varying Words and Phrases in Prayer by which means Men become expos'd to empty vain and unseemly Expressions Now you know Sir that the great difference between Forms and Free Prayer is that in the former the same Words are used upon the same occasions and the latter changes Phrases without any necessity and 't is well known that the chief Excellency of the conceived Prayers of Sectaries lies in this vanity of Variation which this Great Man severely condemns Thirdly He condemns all Affecttaion of Length which you know is one of the great Ornaments and Attendants of Free Prayer p. 17. and to avoid this Prolixity p. 19. he cautions against all empty Repetitions and Digressions letting us know Eccl. 5.2 that God is in Heaven and we are upon Earth therefore our Words should be few Fourthly This Author distinguisheth between Praying in Publick with others p. 16. and Praying Secretly betwixt God and our own Souls allowing Men in secret to take a greater Liberty of enlarging themselves in their own Expressions which though not in themselves so significant and proper may yet suit their Minds and serve to set forth their own immediate Thoughts But in Publick Prayers where we are the Mouth of others and should engage the Affections of those that joyn with us there greater care must be taken that our Expressions be so proper and deliberate as may be most Effectual to that End and for that purpose prefers premeditated Forms wherein Matter and Words are prepared before hasty and present Conceptions In a word this Reverend Author places the great work and business of Prayer p. 2. 3. in the Heart which he stiles the Life and Spirit of it and consequently the Words are but the Carkaess and Shell of it adding withal that 't is not essential to Prayer
may be and are very well provided for by well-compos'd Forms for Solomon tells us There is nothing new under the Sun But if any such new and unheard of Occurrence should happen that Authority neither hath nor can well make provision for there is none will blame you if you either compose a Form or use your free Prayer upon such an occasion Provided it be done with modesty and due respect to the Authority of your Superiours So that these things well considered neither is the Case of Publick Forms weakened nor the necessity of Free Prayer confirm'd by your frequent Talk of Providential Events and Occurrences Your other Objection shall be answered in my next in the mean time I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant M. H. April 9. 1697. LETTER IX To J. M. SIR I Come now according to Promise to consider the second Objection against Forms which you likewise make use of as an Argument for free Prayer And that is taken from the tendency of Forms to cloy and dull your Devotion and the aptness of free Prayer to quicken and enliven the same A great Fault indeed in the One and a great Convenience in the Other if both be true but I think we shall find upon examination that neither is First then you say Publick Forms are apt to deaden and dull your Devotion But why so Why for two Reasons viz. 1. Because they are constantly the same old Words and likewise 2ly Because they are red out of a Book too Now if these be good Reasons you must be as dull as a Beetle in reading the Holy Scriptures and stark dead at the Lord's Prayer for these are always the same Words and read out of a Book too And he that can find no Life or Spirit in reading of these cannot be edifyed by any Prayer Our Saviour exhorted to the frequent reading of the Scriptures 1 Tim. 4.13 and the Apostle to give attendance to reading Which was done by the Primitive Christians with that Intention and Fervency that as Origen tells us The devout Reader seem'd to be in a manner inspir'd But you are dull'd it seems with reading old things and nothing can please you but what is new and speaking without Book Might not this Sir be the occasion of setting up new Lights above the Scriptures to please such new-fangled Humours and enlighten such dull Understandings Yea hath not this occasion'd the laying aside the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed because they are still the same old Words and read out of a Book too But tell me Sir did Christ prescribe a Form of Prayer to deaden or help the Devotion of his Followers Or did the Holy Ghost destroy all the Life and Vigour of it by putting it into Writing that it might be read and used by Christians in all Ages If this were true Oral Tradition would be a greater help to Devotion than the Oracles of God for these are old written Truths and the other the various and changeable Inventions of Men. Does not the Apostle bid us To hold fast the Form of sound words which we can neither hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 nor keep sound long if it be subject to daily Variations Must we be always Children to be pleas'd only with New Things Ephes 4.14 1 Cor. 14.20 and like them to be carried about with every wind of Doctrin Or must we not in Vnderstanding be Men by standing firm to the Ancient Faith and keeping close to the receiv'd and well-order'd Models of Devotion But why Sir should grave and well-order'd Words in Prayer put such a Damp upon your Spirits and dull your Devotion One would think that few and well-weigh'd Expressions should better tend to make Men soberly and religiously Devout than pouring out many new raw and indigested ones and that the Heart should be more at leisure to attend the great business of Prayer when Matter and Words are well prepared for it than when 't is called off and hindred by the Study and Invention of both A Wise Man would think it a great quickening of Devotion to consider that he is joyning with the whole Church at the same time and in the same Prayers and would thereby be encourag'd with greater hopes of success from the harmony and agreement of our Petitions which our Saviour hath made necessary and effectual to that end Mat. 18. But I fear Sir the dulness you speak of will be found more the Fault of the Persons than the Prayers For 't is not possible that the well-order'd Matter and Words of a pious Form should so disorder the Spirits and dull your Affections if there were not something else in the matter Have you not Sir some other Game to play upon the People which is better carried on by new Words than old Then 't is no wonder that that is accounted dull which does not move forward and advance the Design Have you not entertain'd some Prejudices your self or infus'd Prejudices into others against Forms As That they cannot provide for all Emergencies and that the constant Use and Repetition of them is apt to cloy and surfeit and so have put People out of Love with plain wholsome Food by treating them with Kickshaws and Varieties 'T is ten to one but there is something of this in the matter Your unjust Censures Outcries and Declamations against pious and publick Forms hath caused many to neglect the publick Worship and made others careless and irreverent in it And if so you must answer for your own and others dulness which you have unhappily occasioned Secondly You say That old and frequently repeated Forms are not more apt to dull than new and varied Prayers are to quicken and enliven you for you find a different Heat and Flame in such Prayers But pray Sir what kind of Heat is that you feel in such Prayers Is it not rather the Warmth and Heat of Fancy than any real Fervency of Spirit This is a frequent and dangerous Mistake and hath impos'd upon many who have taken some false Heats for true Zeal and the delusions of the Imagination for the true Devotion of the Heart But because this is not easily discern'd or understood by vulgar Minds I will endeavour as clearly as I can to discover the Delusion To this end we may observe That as in the Body there is a Natural Heat residing in the Heart which conveys warm Blood and Spirits to all the Members and in this the Health and sound Constitution of the Body mainly consists so there are sometimes the preternatural Heats of Fevers and other Distempers which too much inflame the Blood and put the Spirits into a violent and disorderly motion and this is an evil habit and indisposition of the Body Just so likewise it is with the Soul there is a pious fervency of Spirit which resides in the Heart and fills it with strong desires after God and an inward delight in him and in this consists sound and
attend to two or more things at once these may serve to prevent those distractions which among other things are occasioned by the study of words it may hinder the rovings and wandrings of the fancy and help to keep the Mind more intent upon the main work and business of Prayer and one would think Sir that the natural and pious tendency of this notion to so good an end might have deserved a little favour and not have suffered you to have fallen so unmercifully upon so harmless and useful a thing Whereas on the other hand the placing the Gift of Prayer in a faculty of using new words and varied phrases may be a means to draw off the Soul from minding the Duty and set it a listning to the fineness and fluency of the words and this can serve only to gratifie itching Ears and to feed a Worm of Curiosity which sends many a gadding up and down to find out the finest words and loudest voice and the most melting Tone And this you know has occasioned a very great giddiness and instability in Religion Now here again it might be reasonably expected that what hath been known to produce such bad effects might have been a little suspected and that you would not so mightily triumph and glory in so dangerous a Notion And now my hand is in give me leave to tell you some of the many mischiefs that have proceeded from this verbal Gift of Prayer First Some have either willingly or weakly mistaken this for that extraordinary or supernatural Gift of Prayer that was granted to the Apostles and finding sometimes their Fancy heated by the fluency and sound of words have thought themselves divinely inspired Hence it is they talk so much of praying by the Spirit as if they felt the Holy Ghost working and speaking within them immediately dictating both the matter and words of their Prayers to them by which means they father upon the Holy Ghost all the hasty and fond productions of their own Brain Secondly This hath led many into a Contempt of all Godly Forms as dead things and made them place all the life and efficacy of Prayer in this pretended Gift by which means they are brought to cast off all regular and sober Devotion and turn their Religion into spiritual Phrenzy and Enthusiasm Thirdly This often proves an occasion of great Pride for many have been puffed up with a vain conceit of this Gift and finding others struck with an admiration of their parts easily come to admire and fall in Love with themselves and think that God as well as Man is delighted to hear them talk Hence they grow refractory and disobedient to their Superiours and think their enjoyning any thing in Publick Worship though merely for Decency and Order a disparagement to their Abilities and not fit to be laid on Persons of their interest and familiarity with God Fourthly and Lastly This Gift has proved a great instrument of Division and is at this day the greatest Idol and Support of all our Sectaries amongst whom he that pleases and excels in this Gift shall be sure to have most Followers An instance of this I think you find at home where the Leader of another Conventicle begins to draw from yours and surely Sir 't is time to look about you for if his Tongue runs nimbler than yours your Disciples may be apt to leave you in the Lurch and run after him or if his Voice be more Charming or his Tone more Taking you are lost that way too In short when Men leave the well composed Devotion of an established Church they have nothing to fix them which makes them stagger and reel like a drunken Man running from one Sect to another till they have run themselves out of all Religion and settled at last in downright Atheism and Infidelity Of this too many sad Instances may be given I could tell you Sir of other direful effects of their mistaken Notion of the Gift of Prayer but I am loth to be tedious I am SIR Your humble Servant M. H. March 19. 1696. LETTER III. To J. M. SIR I Received yours of the 20th Instant which for the most part is just as I feraed a downright running away as any that had Eyes in his Head might have easily seen And to make you sensible of it I must again tell you what we are about and then shew you how far you are gone from it The Question then between us is concerning the Gift of Prayer sc Whether it consists in an Ability of Expressions or in the pious Motions and Elevations of the Heart Now though I gave you a strict charge to keep close to this and repeated it over and over again lest you should forget it yet First In the very beginning of your Letter you are gone from thence into Devonshire and tell me how the Catchpoles laid in wait and pursued those that haunted Conventicles and is not this a plain Excursion Within a few Lines of this I find you running after Bishop Ken to let him know that you did not call him Bishop and then give the reason for it too because he hath no Diocess but yet because he once had one and there may be some good in him you are content that he should be called the late Bishop And is not this a pretty Excursion think you and very much to the Gift of Prayer Immediately on this you are running to the present Bishop to acquaint him that he is no Intruder but that the Diocess is his whatever persons may say or think to the contrary Admirable close to the point Presently on this you are running into France to tell King James to his Face that he can only be call'd the late King but none must think or call him King now for the Judges have given their Opinion say you that 't is Criminal to give him that Title Is not this wonderful pertinent or rather is it not an Excursion with a witness Shortly hereupon you put the Question whether a Conventicle be an illegal Assembly This I suppose you take to be more home to the Gift of Prayer because it speaks up for the Place where this Talent is vented But is there no difference think you between what is Established and what is only wink'd at and suffered to go unpunished If you will needs have an answer your breaking the Bond of Peace and Unity by Conventicles is near about as lawful as breaking the Bond of Wedlock by Adultery and if either be permitted 't is just as Moses's Bill of Divorce not for the goodness of the thing but for the hardness of Mens Hearts After this you tell me that to the Catalogue of Bishops that lie under your Censure you can add more and there is no doubt of this though I thought I had made your Authority and Censures wide enough when I extended it to all other Bishops But still you see how admirably you speak to the purpose Soon after this you tell
me a sad Story of yours and others misfortunes in falling under the Miseries of bad times having your Studies rifled and your Books taken from you Now though this be a sad Calamity and justly deserves Pity yet here 't is a deplorable Excursion and serves for no other End but to let us know that you are forc'd now to speak without Book which will easily be believed Next you take a Leap into the Apocrypha and fall upon the Stories of Tobit and Judith and to shew what a Canonical Man you are Damn all the Apocryphal Books as unworthy to be read by Christians upon any occasion Admirable well to the purpose still and about as near to it as East is to the West In reading a little farther I find you taking another Jump into France for speaking of conceived Prayer you very wittily fall upon the Conception of the Prince of Wales and wonder at two things first how he crept into the World and after that how he crept into the Liturgy Yea you would fain know whether he were not an extemporary Effusion as if he had crept into Free Prayer too But pray Sir what hath the Conception of Prayer to do with the Conception of Princes Must not Publick Worship be well perform'd think you if left to the present and vain Conceptions of such rambling Brains But I have not time to go through your Letter which is a meer Rapsody of Non-sequitur's and nothing to the purpose And as I told you of former Papers that 't was a great exercise of Patience to read them so I may say over and above of this that 't is a perfect Pennance to go through with it However I resolve God willing let the Task be as irksome and unpleasant as it will to go through by the next In the mean time as far as we have gone already what think you Sir are the forementioned Particulars Excursions or no Or rather are they not a plain running away Were you not sufficiently warned and told of this that 't was the loss of the Battel And yet Sir could you not stand the first Brunt but must betake your self to slight upon the first Attack And can you think I will run all the Kingdom over after you yea out of the Kingdom too and cross the Seas in the pursuit At present Sir I have no time for it but hereafter I may have more time to follow the chase and to hunt you out of all your Subterfuges and lurking Holes But what 's to be done at present Why all these and many more Impertinencies of the same kind are clearly to be lopt off and thrown away and I must be forc'd to do with your Letter as Men do with their Gardens Weed it and throw aside all the Trash and Trumpery of it that we may discern the good Seed if there be any And to tell you truly your Letter is so over-run with Weeds that 't will take up more time than I can spare at present to Weed it All that you say of Bishop Hall and Bishop Wilkins though it shall be fully examined in its due time is at present Impertinent because it does not yet come to bear upon any part of the Argument to which I must bring you back in my next In a word all the Rubbish of your Letter must be removed and when that is gone we shall see what little Sense and Reason is left But really Sir I am loth to let this Letter altogether pass without something for your Edification and because matters must be instilled into you by degrees I will tell you where the mistake lies truly your great unhappiness of which I gave you a hint in my last is that you cannot discern betwixt the Gift of Speech and the Gift of Prayer between which there is a manifest difference but instead of that you distinguish between the Gift and Grace of Prayer where there is none for here if the terms are Identical and import the same thing the distinction must be frivolous and that they are so you may easily discern by this short Argument A Gift or Talent of any thing is a faculty of doing that thing aright and as it should be as I proved in my last Now do but apply this to Prayer and then the Gift of Prayer will be a faculty of performing the Duty of Prayer aright and as it should be and then tell me Whether the Grace of Prayer be any thing else than an Ability of the right performance of that Duty and then you will see the Gift and Grace of Prayer to be both one If you say some offer to God only the Calves of their Lips and put him off only with words when the Heart goes not with them Very true Sir now these are said to have the Gift of Speech or an Ability of Expression by pouring out so many words But they have not the Gift or Grace of Prayer which is the doing the Duty aright and making the Heart accompany the words I hope Sir you are not so slow of understanding as not to discern this though I find you are slow enough and therefore if you do not take it presently let me advise you to read it over and over again and 't is possible by Study and beating your Brains it may enter into them I am SIR Yours M. H. March 22. 1696. LETTER IV. To J. M. SIR I Have try'd once whether it were possible to keep you close to a Point and to prevent Excursions but I find it a very difficult if not impossible Task For let a Man warn you never so oft and point to the very place where he would have you stand and keep to yet you wriggle and fly off from it in spight of ones Teeth and like an Eel slip away when one thinks to hold you fastest However I will not utterly despair of you upon the first Experiment And therefore will try again once more Whether there be any way or means of fixing you and though you have shamefully run away once into gross and palpable Excursions yet let me perswade you to rally again and see whether you can stand a second Brunt To that end let us state the Question once more for I find you creeping out there and complain That I make you put the Gift of Prayer there where neither you nor any body else ever placed it i. e. In Words and Expressions whereas you put it as you say not in the words themselves but in the Ability of Expressions as appears by your Definition of the Gift of Prayer which you style An Ability of expressing our selves suitably to God in Prayer on all Occasions Remember this then and stick to it That whereas I put the Gift of Prayer in the good Motions and Affections of the Heart you put it in an Ability of Expressions So that I hope now we are agreed about the State of the Question and shall hear of that no more Now against your