214 
practice has obtained, and that very ex- 
tensively, and for a length of time, of 
forming congregations or assemblies, un- 
limited with respect to numbers, for the 
purpose of offering public addresses at 
Stated seasons, to this greatest and best 
of Beings. These addresses usually em- 
brace a great variety of subjects and 
ideas, and are expressed either in extem- 
pore or pre-composed language; either 
1n words enjoined by authority, or agreed 
on by the congregation, or used at the 
discretion of the minister: and public 
rayer, regularly and statedly performed, 
ie been, and continues to be, strongly 
recommended as an universally impor- 
tant duty, from the press, and from the 
pulpit. 
“«To reject without reason, a custom 
sanctioned by venerable authority, would 
be the extreme of rashness; to continue 
it without enquiry concerning its reason- 
ableness, would be stupid servility. ~ It 
is my design, in the present essay, to 
attempt this enquiry with seriousness and 
candour, and in as short a compass as 
the magnitude of the subject will adinit. 
“Tn the first place, it will ke acknow- 
ledged to be the most important and 
essential character of every verbal ad- 
dress tothe Deity, that it be, as nearly as 
possible, a perfect expression of the real 
state of mind of those who use it. But 
if it can be shewn, that public prayer, 
from its very nature, is unsuitable to this 
purpose, it will follow, that it is not 
reasonable, \ 
‘< Prayer, indeed, may well be’sup- 
posed to possess this character, when it 
is the language of a single person, who, 
feeling his heart happily disposed. for 
communion with God, has entered into 
his closet, and shut the door.* But 
when we consider how. various are the 
eonditions, characters, views,  senti- 
ments, and feelings, of the several indi- 
viduals of. a. public assembly, it seems 
hardly possible that any prayer, much 
less any lone prayer, can at the same 
time express the real feelings of the mi- 
nister, and of the majority, or even of 
any considerable number of his congre- 
gation. If I make use of words which 
are put into my mouth by another, or- 
attend to words uttered by bim, which 
express his feelings, but not mine, or 
those of neither of us, but of him who 
originally composed them ; this exercise, 
however ingeniously contrived, or grace- 
* Matthew vi. 6, 
fully 
Memoirs of the late Duke of Grafton. 
fully performed, cannot be considered as 
a reasonable service, or as acceptable 
prayer. i 
* Again. Prayer may be supposed to 
express the real feelings of the heart, 
when it is the consequence of a disposi- 
tion to pray; a frame of mind suitable to 
prayer, arising from previous meditation, 
or peculiar circumstances. Public pray- 
er, however, demands a fixed time, a 
certain day, or hour, for offering np ad- 
dresses to heaven. But surely it cannot 
be supposed, that religious affections are 
like bodily appetites, returning at stated 
seasons, or that piety, or devotion, can 
be regulated by the figures of a dial, or 
the tolling of a bell! If the repetition 
of certain words’ without meaning be 
prayer, this indeed may be performed at 
all times, and by all surts of persons ; 
but if true worship, be what it is said to 
be in the writings commonly esteemed. 
sacred, the pouring out of the heart be- 
fore God,* the praying to him who | 
seeth in secret,} the benefits to be de- 
rived from it must be connected with 
solitude and retirement, and cannot be- 
long to promiscuous and heterogeneous 
assemblies. ‘ 
‘**Once more. If prayer be the ex 
pression of inward: feelings, it must en. 
gage the whole attention and employ the 
whole mind, Now publiciwership must. 
either be performed according to a pre- 
composed form, or in the omy ore lane 
guage of one of the assembly. Ata per= 
petually recurring form be made use of, 
let the experience of those who have 
assisted at. our liturge worship for 
any length of time, determine, whether 
by frequent repetition it does not become 
a mere simulacrum inane, an empty form, 
devoid of spirit and of truth, Let the 
yawning and lolling attendants on the 
written or unwritten forms of our dis- 
senters testify, whether they have not 
found the long prayer, | 
** more tedious than a tale twice told, 
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.” 
“Tf the latter method, extempore 
prayer, be adopted, the ability of that 
man must be very extraordinary, who, 
while his own mind is directed to hea- 
ven, is able to pay so much attention to 
the selection and arrangement of his 
words, throughout a long service, as to 
avoid giving pain and disgust to his more 
calm and dispassionate hearers. So 
that though public prayer may in some 
* Psalm Ixii. 8 
+ Matthew vi, 6. 
instances 
(Aptie, 
