the point are they so or not If they are so that is words not penn'd but pour'd out of a sudden then the Reproach will lie upon such as use them and not upon those that call them by that name In your Prayers then either the Matter and Words are well digested considered and compos'd before-hand and then 't is a Form of Prayer or else they are left to such sudden Conceptions and Expressions as their Fancy suggests upon the place and then they are no better nor no worse than Extempore Effusions if there be a Medium betwixt these two pray let me know it and you shall have your own term But you do not like the word Extemporary because it implies such an hastiness or rashness of expression Eccl. 5.2 as Solomon forbids in our Addresses unto God and indeed so it does And I heartily wish you would as much abhor the Thing as you do the Name and then there might be some hopes in time of having such Prayers from you as are fit for Wise Men to hear and Good Men to join in But you would have it called by the name of Conceived Prayer or Conceiving of Prayer with all my Heart if that will please you tho' you must own it a preposterous course to Conceive and bring forth together and that great care should be taken to prevent Abortion in publick Congregations But I perceive by a Paper that I receiv'd this day that the term of Free Prayer seems to carry it from all the rest by which I suppose you mean a freedom of your own Conceptions and Expressions in Prayer without being bound up to any Form of Prayer of your own or others Composing and so it comes all to one and I am content to let it pass under that Name for this being only a dispute about Words I am not willing to differ about it Secondly Another thing you complain of in my Sermon which is a great grievance is my disparaging the Gift of Prayer as a thing not to be coveted a very bad thing indeed if it were true but how is it prov'd Why thus I disparage the Gift of Extemporary Effusions which I say is not the Gift of Prayer therefore I desparage the first Gift of Prayer Most profound reasoning And yet this is all the proof that can be gather'd from thence for your Assertion and by this way of Arguing you may prove any thing or nothing as you shall see occasion But I suppose you take the Gift of Prayer to consist in the change and novelty of words or a faculty of talking to God every day in new and varied Phrases Now this is that I expos'd and think it justly deserves it too as you shall sind more at large when I know your mind about it In the mean time I recommend to you a Book Entitled The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence where you may sind the admirable Elegancy and Rarity of such Prayers as they were taken in Short-hand from the most celebrated Preachers in Scotland Whereas the Gift of Prayer rightly understood lies principally in the Heart and consists not in pouring out many and new Words but in pouring out the Soul unto God and lifting up the Heart to him and this I am so far from disparaging that I esteem it a highly valuable and desirable Gift Now because the Hinge of the Controversie between us is like to turn upon this Point I will try for once whether it be possible to prevent Excursions and to keep you close to it and to that end I will first propound the Matter in Debate between us and then give you some Arguments to confirm my Sense and Opinion about it The Question then is Whether the Gift of Prayer doth properly consist in a Faculty of varying Phrases and expressing our selves to God in our own Words or Whether it consists in the pious Motions and good Affections of the Heart Your Papers run plainly on the former and my Sermon affirms the latter Here then we are to engage and enter the Lists and I warn you once more beforehand to keep close for I shall look on all Excursions as a down-right running away which you know is the Loss of a Battel First then I shall prove to you That the â—ift of Prayer consists not in Words or Expressions and much less in the Change and Variety of them which I shall do by this Argument If neither Words in general nor our own Words in particular are absolutely necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer then the Gift of Prayer cannot be said to consist in them But neither Words in general nor our own Words in particular are absolutely necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer Therefore the Gift of it cannot consist in them The major is evident because the Gift or Faculty of doing any thing is necessary to the actual doing and performing of it and therefore if Words are not necessary to Prayer the Gift of Praying cannot consist in them The minor consists of two Parts viz. that neither Words in general nor our own Words in particular are necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer both which I prove thus If Prayer may be acceptably performed without the use of any Words and likewise without the use of our own Words then neither of them are absolutely necessary and essential to the Duty of Prayer But Prayer c. That both these are true we have plain Evidence and Examples in Holy Scripture 1 Sam. 1.13 for Hannah prayed in her Heart when her Voice was not heard and all that speak of mental Prayer which is the Soul 's sighing out its Desires unto God own that the Duty may be performed by the inward Motions and Operations of the Mind without the use of the Voice or uttering any thing with the Tongue The Prophet Zachary describes the Spirit of Grace and Supplications Zech. 12.10 by looking upon him whom they have pierced and mourning over him which imports the inward Compunction of the Soul but hath no relation to Words and outward Expressions And S. Paul sets forth the Assistance which the Spirit of God gives in Prayer not by helping us to utter and express any thing with the Tongue Rom. 8.26 but by sighs and groans that cannot be uttered So that Prayer may be performed without any Words and that it may be without our own Words is evident by the Experience of many good Christians who daily serve God in the use of Forms which are not their own but the Words of others so that neither Words in general nor our own in particular are absolutely necessary or essential to the Duty of Prayer and consequently the Gift of Prayer cannot be properly said to consist in them which was the thing to be proved SIR I am forced to break off here intending God willing to give you a farther Account of this Matter in my next in the mean time when you have chew'd the Cud upon this
and to say with Grotius That our Lord did not command the recital of the Words nor tie up his Followers to Words and Syllables Pray Sir be not too obstinate Let the Ancient Fathers and Assembly of Divines have some small Sway with you Do but think Sir that 't is possible for you to be mistaken and consider what an Unreasonable piece of Confidence and Presumption it is to oppose the General Sense of the Christian Church in all Ages And if you could be perswaded to this ordinary piece of Modesty and Self-denyal there might be yet some hopes of your Conviction Your second Request is to explain to you the Meaning of the extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration about which you have some Exceptions which shall be answered in my next I am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Wellwisher M. H. May 25. 1697. LETTER XV. To J. M. SIR HAving in my last given you I hope some Satisfaction about the Apostles using the Lord's Prayer according to their Master's Command and Direction I proceed now to give you some Account of that Extraordinary Gift of Praying by Inspiration that was granted to them which you desire may be explained to you To which end you may observe 1 That when St. John the Herald and Harbinger of our Saviour Proclaimed him to the World he declared of him Mat. 3 1◠that he should Baptize his Disciples with the Holy Ghost meaning that the Holy Spirit should come down visibly upon some of them to assure them of the Truth of his Doctrine and to enable them to Preach and Propagate it to the whole World 2 In the next place you may observe that when our Blessed Saviour first called and gathered his Twelve Apostles among other things for their Encouragement he bid them To take no thought before-hand what they should Speak Mark 13.11 nor to Premeditate for it should be given them in that hour what they should Speak for it is not ye that Speak saith he but the Spirit of my Father that Speaketh in you meaning That they should find that assistance from a Divine Spirit that should help them far better in the Work they were called to than any Fore-thought or Premeditation of their own could do for the Spirit of God should Speak in and through them 3 Again Christ a little before his Ascension into Heaven promis'd to send them the Holy Ghost to be their Paraclete Joh. 14.16 17. ◠Joh. 2.1 which Word signifies not only a Comforter to comfort them in his absence but an Advocate to plead their Cause by teaching them to pray and forming their Petitions for them Now upon the day of Penticost which is our Whit-sunday the Spirit according to Christ's most Gracious Promise was poured out upon them the Holy Ghost coming down on the Apostles in the Sound of a mighty Rushing Wind as a Token of Inspiration and sate upon their Heads in the Appearance of Fire to represent those pious Ardours or Fervency of Spirit that should accompany their Devotion And likewise in the shape of Cloven Tongues to signifie that diversity of languages with which they were endow'd By this Descent of the Holy Ghost the Apostles were furnished with a great Variety of Spiritual Gifts many of which are mentioned by St. Paul in sundry parts of his Epistles Among these as St. Chrysostom tells us Chrys on Rom 8 26. was a Gift of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Spirit Zach. 12.10 that was promised to be poured out is by the Prophet Zachary stiled a Spirit of Grace and Supplications And St. Paul tells us Rom. 8.26 That this Spirit helped their Infirmities in Prayer For God saith that Father then gave Gifts which are also called Spirits particularly mentioning this Gift or Spirit of Prayer and he that had it saith he pray'd for the whole Multitude By which it appears that the Publick Offices of the Church were in those Days performed by these extraordinary Gifts the Holy Ghost inspiring into them both the Matter and Words of their Prayers without any help or recourse to their own Invention And this Gift was generally accompanied with the Gift of Tongues whereby the Apostles who were before but ignorant Fisher-men and Mechanicks and scarce understood their own Mother-tongue were by this means enabled to pray in the Languages of all Nations and declare to each of them the wonderful Works of God for so we read Acts 2.4 that the Apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance This the Men of all Nations who were then present at Jerusalem saw and heard to their great amazement for they marvelled to hear these Illiterate Galilaeans speak to Men of all Countries in their own Tongues And without any previous Learning or Meditation pray fluently in Languages they never heard or understood before And this Gift was likewise attended with the Interpretation of Tongues by which these Apostles were able to interpret in their own Vulgar Language those Prayers which themselves or others had uttered in an unknown Tongue Of this we read at large 1 Cor. 14. Now the design of these Supernatural and extraordinary Gifts was chiefly for the Confirmation and Propagation of the Gospel for so we read that Tongues were a Sign 1 Cor. 14.22 not to them that believed but to them that believed not meaning that these Divine Impulses and Inspirations were intended for the converting of Unbelievers and propagating the Faith of Christ And therefore to attest the Divinity of them they were frequently attended with the Gifts of Healing and Miracles For the Apostles did not only pray for the Sick but healed them too of all manner of Diseases with a word 's Speaking And by many miraculuos Signs and Tokens convinced the World that they were not only sent from God but that what they delivered were the immediate Dictates of his Holy Spirit Now these Extraordinary and Miraculous Gifts were peculiar only to the first Ages of Christianity and were calculated for those Times when the Christian Faith needed Confirmation by the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power for the Christian Religion being then new and forc'd to struggle with the Opposition both of Jew and Gentile These extraordinary Assistances were necessary to overcome the Prejudices of both and thereby to convert some and confirm others in the belief of it But when these had obtained their Effects by the spreading and success of the Gospel which prevailed every where And when the Spirit of God had Dictated and Finished the Holy Scriptures in which are sufficiently contained the Rules and Directions both for the matter and manner of our Prayers Then began this Extraordinary Gift by degrees to cease and the Duty of Prayer to be left to that Ordinary way and means in which it continues to this Day when by the Help of pious and publick Forms composed by the Church for publick Worship and
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
offer shall be fairly heard in due time yet that time is not yet come For though in Divine Revelations Authority may go before Reason because we are to believe what God saith though it may seem without above or against Reason yet in Humane Testimonies Reason is to go before Authority Because we are not to believe any Man without shewing good Reason for what he saith So that we are in the right way for satisfaction and therefore you must not go out of it your self nor seek to draw me out of it by any impertinent Excursions But you tell me you have other things wherein you desire satisfaction Ay Sir that is one of your Scurvy-Tricks and a plain Hint and Intimation of your design of running away I 'll hear nothing of that till we have finished the Point in hand No Sir I will not step a Foot out of the way though it were to prove That Extempore Prayer was brought into these Kingdoms by Romish Emissaries which in due time shall be proved to you by as full and clear Evidence as any Wise Man can desire You see Sir what pains I am forced to take to hedge you in and keep you from flying off And if after all this you will still be gadding and running away you will not only appear to be a Fugitive and Volatile Animal but likewise shew What an Able Champion you are like to make to defend the Dissenting Cause In the mean time I am SIR Your Humble Servant M. H. March 29. 1697. LETTER V. To J. M. SIR HEaring nothing from you these three or four Posts I have had the leisure to go on further in the Perusal of your Letter Where I find you cannot yet come off from that frivolous Distinction between the Gift and Grace of Prayer for you tell me these Terms must not be confounded but carefully distinguished by all that would speak Intelligibly in this Matter Now I think these Terms have rather confounded than clear'd up your Understanding in this Matter and hindred you from Speaking or Writing any thing Intelligibly about it For this is a Distinction without a Difference as I proved in my third Letter But finding you are not very quick or ready to take a thing I 'll try to make it a little more plain and obvious to your Understanding for if it appear that the Gift of Prayer is the Grace of Prayer and the Grace the Gift of it you will then see the Absurdity of it which you may by this Argument The Faculty of performing the Duty of Prayer aright is the Gift of Prayer But the Faculty of performing the Duty of Prayer aright is likewise the Grace of Prayer Ergo The Gift of Prayer is the same thing with the Grace of Prayer Et vicissim The Major is proved from the nature of a Gift or Talent of a thing As Of Writing Reading Speaking Painting Carving c. which are nothing else but Abilities of doing these several things in the best Manner The Minor must remain firm till you can shew any more in the Grace of Prayer than a gracious Gift vouchsafed by the Spirit of God to dispose and enable to the right performance of the Duty of Prayer And therefore the Conclusion must follow That these Terms are Identical and import the same thing So that really Sir This Distinction is much like his who distinguish'd between Operation and Working saying that Pepper was hot in Operation but cold in Working And 't is every Jot as absurd to say that a Man may be hot in the Gift but cold in the Grace of Prayer But because I find you too apt to be impos'd upon by Terms and Phrases without knowing or attending to the true Sense and Meaning of them I shall for the better clearing of this Matter enquire 1. Into the Original of this Distinction Whence it came and of what standing it is in the World 2. Into the Occasion of it Or what it is that hath betray'd and misled so many into it First then Whence Sir had you this Distinction and in what Mint was it coyn'd If you look over the Bible you will not find this Phrase of the Gift of Prayer from one end to the other You may read there of the Gift of Tongues and I think a Gift of Utterance but for the Gift of Prayer in those very Terms you must seek somewhere else And if you are at a loss for the first Term of the Distinction and cannot find the Gift of Prayer there then pray take the Bible again and see whether you can find the other Term of the Grace of Prayer there And if you are at a loss for that too and cannot find the Grace of Prayer in those express Terms mentioned Then to be sure that Distinction never came from the Holy Scriptures where neither of the Terms are to be found Whence then might it come And who was the Author of this famous Distinction Why I have searched into some of the Centuries after the Apostles to see whether any of the Ancient Fathers had heard or spake any thing of it But as far as my search can reach at present I find no News or Tydings of any such Distinction among them but rather the quite contrary Aust Epist 105. St. Austine plainly makes the Terms identical For he tells us Ipsa Oratio inter Gratiae munera reperitur Prayer it self is to be reckon'd among the Works of Grace Hil. on Matth. 5. St. Hilary wills us Orare ad Deum non multiloquio sed Conscientia i. e. Not by pouring out many Words but with the purity of the Heart and Conscience Cypr. de orat dom St. Cyprian tells us that Deus non Vocis sed Cordis Auditor est i. e. God hath no regard to the Voice or any Ability of Expressions Basil de orat but to the Heart only St. Basil speaking of Prayer saith We do not at all define it to a business of Words nor an ability of Expressions And Clemens Alexandrinus gives a Reason for it Clem. Al. Strom. Lib. 7. Because saith he we can speak distinctly unto God tho' with Silence and can utter loud inward Cryes where no Voice is heard A Learned Divine who hath made a narrow and particular Search into the Writings of the Fathers about this matter tells us Dr Falken That all the Ancient Writers discourse of Prayer as a work of the Heart and Soul and not of Words Whereas you discourse of it as a Matter of Words and an Ability of Expressions So that this Distinction was not known in the days of these Fathers No nor in many hundred years after How then did this Distinction come into the World that hath made so much Noise and done so much Mischief in it Come I think you have pointed unto the first Author of it which if I mistake not is Bishop Wilkins Who in his Preface to the Gift of Prayer seems to own and acknowledge as
much For in the beginning of the Preface he tells us That little or nothing was ever written on this Subject before him and seems to wonder that this excellent Art should be hid from all former Ages and reserv'd for his discovery in the latter Days In the next Page he repeats it again and saith For ought he could find there was little written of it in any Language In the Close of the Preface he speaks home and makes himself plainly the first Author of it for he tells us he drew up the substance of his Book many years before he knew so much as any one Author who had formerly attempted this Subject So that this is a mere Novelty by the Author 's own Confession And yet you think he has infinitely oblig'd Mankind by presenting the World with this singular Gift But I think he had no such high Thoughts of it himself in the latter and wiser part of his Life And would willingly have recall'd this Gift when he saw what bad use was made of it But I shall give you a more particular account of this in a Letter by it self In the mean time let us proceed Secondly To enquire what might be the Occasion of this Distinction between the Gift and Grace of Prayer And 't is more than probable that this proceeded from an unhapy mistaking a Readiness of speech for the Gift of Prayer There is indeed in some Men a great Faculty and Readiness of Speech whereby they can express themselves with greater Fluency and less Hesitation than others And this as all other Faculties of Body and Mind may be stiled the Gift of God But that this is not the Gift of Prayer I shall prove to you by this Argument The Gift of Prayer must be something that is peculiar and appropriated to Prayer for else it may be the Gift of any other thing as well as Prayer But this Readiness of Speech is not peculiarly appropriate unto Prayer For we know it may be and daily is applyed to many other Subjects and Occasions as the Lawyer discovers it in pleading And men of Parts daily shew it in matters of common Converse and Observation and Therefore The Readiness of Speech you so much talk of cannot be the Gift of Prayer Besides if the Gift of Prayer should lie in such a Readiness of Speech what shall they do that want it 'T is most certain that the far greatest part of Christians have neither a Readiness of Mind to conceive nor a Readiness of Tongue to express for themselves such Prayers as are sit to be offer'd up to the Divine Majesty What then Shall they not pray at all Or can they pray without the Gift Why say some in Publick let them attend to the Ministers Words and Pray by his Gift that is Let them be tyed up to his Words which tho' sudden and unknown to them before-hand must be a Form to them and preferr'd too before the Publick Deliberate Forms of Godly Men yea of the whole Churches composing And is not this an excellent way think you to preserve Sober Serious and True Devotion and to help Men to agree and speak the same thing in the Publick Assemblies But what shall they do in Private Why there you would have them Try and Practise and Learn this Art Yes And whilst they are studying and beating their Brains about Matter and Words what will become of the Heart How shall they watch that Or excite those inward Motions and Desires that are fit to attend their Petitions Since the Mind can't attend two such different things at once I fear Sir that some by trying to practise themselves and hearing it irreverently and rudely practised by others have wholly laid aside the Duty and settled in a total Neglect and Carelesness about it These are some of the many doleful Evils with which your Notion of the Gift of Prayer is unluckily clogg'd All which are wisely prevented by placing the Gift or Grace of Prayer where it should be viz. in the Heart and the Pious Motions and Affections of the Soul And thence Perswading Men not so much to rely upon their own Abilities as to make use of those many Pious and Excellent helps both for Publick and Private Devotion with which the Wisdom and Piety of the Church of England hath so happily furnished them SIR I have sent you this to entertain and refesh your Memory before your Answer comes which I shall earnestly expect by the next I am SIR Your humble Servant M. H. April 5. 1697. LETTER VI. To J. M. SIR I Find by your last that 't is as hard to please as 't is to convince you For though we stated the Question last by your own Definition of the Gift of Prayer and I thought to hear no more of that yet now you are out of conceit with that too and complain still of the State of the Question 'T was first put in new and varied words which is the main if not only difference between Forms and Extempore Prayer the former consisting in the constant use of the same Words upon the same occasion The latter in the change and variety of them where no occasion requires it But that would not do thence we came from the Words no the Ability of Expressions and yet now that does not please neither for you say this is a mere Logomachy or Lis de Nomine a Dispute about Words and so it must necessarily be whilst you place the Gift in them What 's to be done then You see this Notion of yours is a mere Proteus or Changling that is still varying and changing the Scene Why you must try again and see whether you can fix it upon something that is more constant and lasting For there is no Building without a Foundation nor no Arguing without a true State of the Question If you would place it in the Heart that would be a sound and safe Bottom and a stable Principle of Devotion but whilst you put it in the Tongue which is so slippery a Member and daily given to many Windings and Turnings you will never be able to fix it upon so unsound and uncertain a Bottom You would have the Question then stated thus Whether an Ability of Expressions may not be called the Gift of Prayer or Whether the inward Desires and good Motions of the Heart do only deserve that Name With all my Heart provided you will take an Answer and stand to it I say then That an Ability of Expressions is very improperly call'd the Gift of Prayer because the whole business of Prayer may be done without it And that the pious Motions and Elevations of the Heart do most properly and principally deserve that Name because this is the very Essence of Prayer which is required to all sorts of Prayer and none of them can be well perform'd without it If you could but come to this it would be a fair step to a right Understanding in this Matter for
hereby you would see that Words are no part of Prayer and how absurd it is to place the Gift of it in that which does not appertain to it and likewise how impossible it is to perform the Duty without the Gift which is nothing else but the Ability of performing it Can any Speak without the Gift of Speaking or Think or Write without the Gift of Thinking or Writing How then should it come to pass that a Man can Pray without the Gift of Praying Moreover you might learn from hence that God's bestowing the Assistance of his Grace to kindle and excite Pious Dispositions of Heart in seeking unto him is most properly his vouchsasing the Gift of Prayer and our Exercising or Exerting such earnest and affectionate Desires with a lively Faith and inward Devotion is our having or using the Gift of Prayer And really Sir you may as well distinguish between the Gift and Grace of Charity as the Gift and Grace of Prayer both which are the Gracious Gifts of God's Holy Spirit the one enclining us to shew Mercy to our Neighbour and the other to ask Mercy and Favour at the Hands of God If you will consider this well and make it the Subject of your second and best Thoughts 't is possible it may help to bring this matter to a good Issue In the mean time I am glad I have in some measure cur'd the Malady of Excursions for I find the Number of them mightily abated there being in your last Letter not above five or six that are very considerable viz. about King William the Assassination the Jacobitish Insurrections French Invasion and their Preparations c. of which because I find you sensible by asking Pardon for them and desiring me not to be too severe upon them I am willing to pass them by hoping they may wholly wear oft in time though such an Inveterate Habit cannot be cur'd presently But the Misery is the curing of one Evil hath made you fall into another and from Excursions you are run into plain Contradictions For there is no reconciling your last Letter with the first In the first you told me that I made you put the Gift of Prayer where neither you nor any body else ever put it viz. in Words and Expressions In your last you place the Gift wholly and solely in them so that as t' was once Rich. against Baxter so 't is now I. against M. But how does this appear Why as clear as the Sun both by the Arguments and Distinctions of your Last Your first Argument is an Appeal to the common way of Speaking For when 't is said that such an one hath a good Gift of Prayer we mean not say you that he hath any pious Motions or good Affections but that he aptly expresseth himself in that Duty So that the apt Expressions are with you the Gift of Prayer Whereas I say that without those pious Motions and Affections such a one hath a good Gift of Prating as appears by pouring out so many Words but he hath no good Gift of Praying for that is the pouring out the Heart and Soul unto God But you say 't is Vulgarly so stiled I hope Sir you are not to be led by the Vulgar into their Errors and Mistakes but to lead them out of them But I see your Notions are as Vulgar as the Persons you converse with and there is no raising you a Twirl above the Vulgar where all your Interest lies Your next Argument is more Home for the Words than this for therein you tell us that the Words themselves whereby we express our selves may be and are commonly term'd Prayer which you prove thus Because when a Man is said to rehearse the Lord's Prayer or to read Common Prayer the meaning is say you that he rehearseth or reads the Words of those Prayers not that he hath any Pious Motions or Affections And can any thing more plainly follow from hence than that the Words whereby we express our selves are with you the Gift of Prayer But pray Sir Is the bare rehearsing the words praying why then a Parret may pray for that may be taught all or most of those words You did not then think of that and therefore must think it over again But you have one Argument that quite contradicts and destroys all this again And that is to prove that a Man may have the Gift of Prayer without the Gift of Speech Utterance or Elocution and so it can neither lie in the Words nor in the Ability neither The Argument runs thus If there be a great many who have a Talent or Gift of expressing Desires to God in a suitable manner in Praying that have not the Gift of Elocution applicable to other occasions Then there is a difference between the Gift of Elocution and the Gift of Prayer And who doubts it Did I not tell you before that 't was your unhappiness not to distinguish and discern between them But the design of the Argument is to shew That you can and do distinguish between them and that because as you say there are a great many who have a Talent or Gift of uttering their Desires in a suitable manner unto God that have no Gift of Elocution upon other occasions That is there are many Men who can scarce speak a word of Sense between Man and Man who yet can pour out abundance of wonderful and powerful Sense unto God in Prayer Now how should this be What are they inspir'd with Matter and Words in talking unto God and left to their own natural Dulness in their conversing with Men For the proof of this you appeal to the Experience of many Christians whom you have heard and known I know not Sir what wonderful things you have heard of this kind but I fear the great Sense you speak of if Wise Men had the hearing of it would be frequently found great Nonsense Pass we then from your Arguments to your Distinctions And here you shew as nice and distinguishing a Head as most Men and for splitting of a Hair I think 't is hard for Peter Lumbard or any Schoolman of them all to go beyond you But let us see what your Distinctions are to what end they serve and where they most properly place or six the Gift of Prayer First then you distinguish between a special Gift of Prayer which by the Name should be the best and this you place in the Heart and the good Motions of it and here you are safe as in a Church or Castle for that is all that is necessary and essential to Prayer But besides this there is a common Gift which lies in Words and Expressions And this is your Gift of Prayer though it may be done without it Again you distinguish between the Internal Spiritual Gift of Prayer in which consists the Life and Spirit of it and this you place in the Elevations of the Heart and here you are right again if you would but rest