shut out the eye of Heaven, ascends the ladder where the angels glide to and fro-Prayer.

Zanoni, Book VII. Chap. XVI.-E. B. LYTTON.

Prayer is an action of likeness to the Holy Ghost, the spirit of gentleness and dove-like simplicity; an imitation of the Holy Jesus, whose spirit is meek, up to the greatness of the biggest example, and a conformity to God; whose anger is always just, and marches slowly, and is without transportation, and often hindered, and never hasty, and is full of mercy: prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the seat of meditation, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest: prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity, and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontiergarrison to be wise in.

Course of Sermons for the Year.
JEREMY TAYLOR.

PRAYER always available.

Heav'n's never deaf but when men's heart is dumb.

Emblems, Book III., The Entertainment.

FRANCIS QUARLES.

R

Many times good men pray, and their prayer is not a sin, but yet it returns empty; because, although the man may be, yet the prayer is not, in proper disposition. Sermon on Prayer.-JEREMY TAYLOR.

PRAYER. Power of

The good man's prayer is among the reasons by which the Omnipotent is moved in the administration of the universe. The poor man's prayer pierceth the clouds and weak and contemptible as he seems, he can draw down the host of heaven, and arm the Almighty in his defence, so long as he is able only to utter his wants, or can but turn the thought of his heart to God. Sermon on Prayer.-Dr. OGDEN.

Shameful my sloth, that have deferred my night prayer till I am in bed. This lying along is an improper thing for piety.

Indeed there is no contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath hanselled it with prayer. The publican standing, Job sitting, Hezekiah lying on his bed, Elijah with his face between his legs. But of all gestures give me St. Paul's: For this cause I bow my knees to the father of my Lord Jesus Christ; knees when they may then they must be bended. Good Thoughts in Worse Times, VI.

THOMAS FULLER.

PRAYER should be direct to God.

Prayers made to God by saints fetch a needless compass about. That is but a rough and uneven way. Besides one steep passage therein, questionable whether it can be climbed up, and saints in Heaven made sensible of what we say on earth. The way of the plain, or plain way, both shortest and surest, is, "Call upon me in the time of trouble." Such prayers, though starting last, will come first to the mark.

Scripture Observations, XIV.-THOMAS FULLER.

PRAYER and its Answers.

When Plato gave Diogenes a great vessel of wine, who asked but a little and a few caraways, the Cynic thanked him with his rude expression: "Thou neither answerest to the question thou art asked, nor givest according as thou art desired: being inquired of, how many are two and two? thou answerest, twenty." So it is with God and us in the intercourse of our prayers; we pray for health and he gives us, it may be, a sickness that carries us into eternal life; we pray for necessary support for our persons and families, and he gives us more than we need; we beg for a removal of a present sadness, and he gives us that which makes us able to bear twenty sadnesses, a cheerful spirit, a peaceful conscience, and a joy in God, as an antepast of eternal rejoicings in the kingdom of God.

Sermon on Prayer.-JEREMY TAYLOR.

PRAYER of a Good Man, compared to the singing of a Lark.

I have seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest, than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the air, about his ministries here below. So is the prayer of a good man: when his affairs have required business, and his business was matter of discipline, and his discipline was to pass judgment upon a sinning person, or had a design of charity, his duty met with the infirmities of a man, and anger was its instrument; and the instrument became stronger than the prime agent, and raised a tempest, and overruled the man; and then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up towards a cloud; and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without intention; and the good man sighs for his infirmity, but must be content to lose that prayer, and he must recover it when his anger is removed, and his spirit is becalmed, made even as the brow of Jesus, and smooth like the heart of God; and then it ascends to

heaven upon the wings of the holy dove, and dwells with God, till it returns, like the useful bee, loaden with a blessing and the dew of heaven.

PREACHING.

Course of Sermons for the Year.
JEREMY TAYLOR.

O that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow cockle and darnel! Sermon of the Plough.-HUGH Latimer.

This I quarrelled at, that he went far from his text to come close to me, and so was faulty himself in telling me of my faults.

Personal Meditations, XXIV.-THOMAS FULLER.

PREACHING in Olden Time.

It is an abominable shame, and a crying sin of this land, that poor people hear not in their churches the sum of what they should pray for, believe, and practise ; many mock-ministers having banished out of divine service the use of the Lord's prayer, creed, and ten commandments. Mixt Contemplations on these Times, XLV. THOMAS FUller.

PRECEDENCY.

Under ground

Precedency's a jest; vassal and lord,

Grossly familiar, side by side consume!

The Grave.-ROBERT BLAIR.