indispensable, for what else can prevent the absurdities into which almost all young poets fall? what else keeps them clear, when shunning one fault, from gliding into another? (v. 24, et seq.) "not to be formal they become negligent; for fear of seeming to creep they lose themselves in the clouds; they rant to be sublime, and are absurd for the sake of novelty !" Weiland's Hypothesis of the AP. of Horace. The source of these faults is evidently the want of sense and judgment, which like the δαιμόνιον of Socrates, perpetually signifies to us τὰ μὲν γράφειν, τὰ δὲ μὴ γράφειν.—The junction of Fancy with the foregoing is ne cessary, in as much as it is the chief characteristic of poetry and relieves it from prosaic languor. But to return to our author. Horace commences this epistle with a Socratic turn extremely likely to awaken the attention of the younger Piso. He exposes in its full absurdity the essential fault which in a bad poem will be more prominent than in any other work of art, and which bad poets are incapable of curing. They do not know how to compose a whole; they commence with one image and finish with another, and their works are patched up of ill assorted pieces which cannot be made to unite and harmonise. In verses 14 and 24 he points out the common faults against the rule of unity, and the usual errors of young poets: in ver. 38 he exhorts those who wish to write, thoroughly to examine their own powers, and not to rush blindly and precipitantly into the toil of composition. A young man, who must probably be destitute of experience and ripeness of thought, and who has not yet had time to drink deeply of the Athenian and Roman fountains or the modern springs of improved science and polished Belles Lettres, can hardly be expected to form a right judgment on any subject of literature. Such a person should be cautious that he does not presume too much on the powers which he may fancy he possesses, and which may have received the praises of friends and relations, who, as we all know, are too generally disposed to flatter and to cherish what perhaps some foolish mistake, arising either from ignorance or partiality, may have led them to regard as the dawn of genius," as it is called; such a person should be cautious how he suffers himself to be seduced to spend his hours in the attempt of composing pieces on high flown and difficult subjects, which he is often induced to do merely because at school or afterwards at college, some parts of his early productions may have received the approbation of his tutor; but it is to be remembered that the ability to make a good or a pretty Latin verse now and then is by no means sufficient encouragement to continue to woo the muse, and to proceed to the paulo majora, unless in deed the party actually possess, (independent of his own ideas and fancy respecting his talents) every one of the requisites before premised. But doubly cautious should he be, who unrewarded with any such praise as we have alluded to, has been repulsed in his earlier onsets-onsets which may have been labored with excessive pains, anxiety, and research; doubly cautious, we say, should he be how he wastes in an idle and unprofitable pursuit (and one moreover whose attainment is completely problematical) that irreparable time, which if properly directed, and employed with equal assiduty, would have led him through the depths of Science, and rendered him familiar with the most elegant and the most diffi cult authors of antiquity. With your permission, Mr. Editor, we will at some future opportunity renew and proceed with these strictures on the poetic art, but before the subject is for the present dismissed, it will be necessary to state, that the object of this Essay is by no means to discourage the exertion of youthful talent, but on the contrary, to direct it to a more profitable, a more easily attained, and an equally honorable object of ambition-an object which will afford permanent and substantial satisfaction, while the pursuit of the Muse, even when successful, would afford at best, unless we soar infinitely above mediocrity, but fugitive applause. Sept. 8th, 1812. CRITO. The Excellency of FORMS of PRAYER, the LORD'S-PRAYER more Especially. A SERMON PREACHED before the University of CAMBRIDGE, AT St. Mary's in A. D. 1644. By JOHN PEARSON, A. M. Fellow of King's College, afterwards Lord Bishop of Chester. NEVER BEFORE PRINTED. LONDON, Printed for George Sawbridge, at the Tree Golden Flower De Luces When ye pray, say, Our Father. LUKE VI. 2. tracted State, it is so far from wonder, that it were the greatest if it should not, as being a Vessel that hath hardly escaped Shipwrecks We shall present our Readers with many other of Bishop Pearson's smaller tracts and communications, chronologically arranged, even on the calmest Seas. If those Persons who serve at the Altar should themselves be made a sacrifice, their Enemies could raise no Admiration in them, who know they do but follow that City of God Jerusalem, even Jerusalem that killed the Prophets and Stoned them If their Sacred Functions should he that were sent unto her. Irreverently invaded and the Ministry of Reconciliation Prophaned by a Promiscuous Intrusion, the Sin were great, though it were not new: Strange fire is as old as Nadab and Abihu, and the oldest of the people have Jeroboam for their Patron. If they should Conspire to dis-robe the Spouse of Christ, to disinherit the Church, and say, Let us take to our selves the Houses of God in Possession, this is as Old as Edom, and Moab, and Gebal, and Amaleck. Dionysius has taught them how to jeer off Jupiter's Cloak and the Beard of Esculapius. Nay some of our Selves, like Statues of Victoria, seem ready to deliver them with our own Hands. If they should come closer yet (as the Devil drew near to Job) and study to Rob them of their Learning too, it hath been done before. Alas, the Apostate Julian would be their Predecessor: Nay if they should attempt it by Arms, the Turks did as much long since in the Eastern, and the Goths and Vandals in the Western Church. But that they should take away our Prayers too, the proper Weapons of our Church, this is beyond all Precedent. What, are we such Recusants that we must be thus disarmed? Or may it not be Lawfull to put up our Petitions, no not to God? What must we have an Arbitrary service too? Or is Common Prayer to be taken in the Hebrew Dialect for Prophane? Are they so highly offended with the Name of Priest, that they will take away our Morning and Evening Sacrifice? And not leave us so much as the Calves of our Lips? Our Persons I confess may be Obnoxious, and Gold and Silver may be a Sin. But the Innocent Prayers, what have they deserved? How have they offended Man, when so often Appeased God? Or at what Bar shall they be Condemned, which have been Dayly admitted to the Throne of Grace? Did the Authors give their Bodies to the Fire, that their books should be Burned? Ör were such Reliques of Martyrs ever disallowed? Did Reverend Cranmer therefore first Sacrifice his Hand, because it had a part in the Liturgy? If nothing else methinks, Mr. Calvin's Approbation should keep it from an utter Abolition, or it must be a through Reformation indeed, that must Reform Geneva from Superstition. But former Liturgies have been Erroneous, and the Prayers of our Church may have some Spice perhaps of Malignity in them: The Bishops had a hand in it. What think you if the Conjuring in the Litany hath raised all these Storms in the Common-wealth? What say you if praying for all that Travel by Land or Water hath brought so much Ammunition from beyond the Seas? What if the Prayer to deliver the King from all his Enemies, were the cause of his Separation from his Great Council? Indeed if this be True, there is some Cause why our Liturgy should be expunged, but that any should wrest from us the Prayer of our Lord, works such a degree of Admiration, as it goes beyond Belief. What Simeon would suffer his Saviour to be pulled out of his Arms? What Gadarenes are these to strive to turn him out of their Coasts? Qui dedit vivere docuit et orare (saith St. Cyprian.) His prayer ought to be as dear as our Life. Wherefore did the Apostles ask but that we might Learn? Why were they so Ignorant, but that we might know? For one of his Disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to Pray, (Verse the 1st,) And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, Our Father. In which Words three things are Observable. 1. Indeterminatio temporis, örar gorizire. When ye Pray. Determinatio Orationis, Aiyers say. 3. Individuatio determinationis, máτsę nμäv. όταν προσ εύχεσθε, Λέγετε Πάτερ In the Mosaical Law the Duty of Prayer was not so Absolutely and Expressly commanded; there was no General Precept clearly obliging all the Children of Israel to a Petitionary Invocation expressly Propounded in the Covenant, insomuch that the Excellent Industry of the Masters of the Jews, who have Marshalled out of the Law 613 distinct Commands have not found out one for Prayer, and Abulensis after all his Laborious Comments upon Moses, by which he puts as it were another Veil upon his Face, with a fond Wariness, concludes that quasi nunquam invenitur. Indeed the Prophets who were somewhat on the brighter side of the Cloud commanded Men to call upon God, either amours, or with Limitation of Times or Causes, but a Constant and perpetual Duty of Prayer was not Imposed by any known Divine Injunction 'till under the Gospel. For the Law once delivered, and understood only as the State of the People then required, did not evidently crave a special and perpetual aid from Heaven, for the performance of it, neither was there then such a disproportion between the Promises and Precepts but that the Obedience to the one might work with some Modesty and expectation of the other; Besides if the most Fervent Prayers had then been added to the most exact Obedience they could have wrought no absolute certainty of the Legal Promises, God having prepared a far greater than they generally Expected or he plainly Propounded. But the heighth of that True and Inherent Sanctity which we are called to under the Gospel evidently requires the perpetual Influence of Heaven, the Continual Assistance of the Spirit of God: And yet the Infinite Disproportion of our Duty with the Reward Revealed now challengeth the Supply of Petitions even upon supposal of the most Exact Obedience. Indeed the Jewish Sacrifices were in a manner Ceremonial or Symbolical Prayers. As Orpheus, and Zoroaster used their Suffumigations; Hence the Greek e without change of a letter is made the Latin Ara. So Christ is our Altar as he is our Intercessor. Not that they Prayed not under the Law, or that they were not obliged upon occasion. I know Invocation hath a more antient origin, at least from Gen. 4. the days of Enos, and can scarce be imagined Younger 26. than Religion her self, being the most Proper and Natural Act thereof, as Schools observe, and therefore all the Heathen Sages exercised themselves therein as Porphyrius testifies of the Indian Brachmans, the Persian Magi, and the Greek Theologi, and the first Authors of the Massalian Heresy were Gentiles, as Epiphanius observes. So did the Jews in succeeding Ages, taught by frequent occa sions, and the Examples of the Prophets. In the Temple they joyned them with their Sacrifice, in their Synagogues with Reading of the Law, which are therefore called by Philo, Tà xaτà ПIgorπόλεις προσευχήρια. And in their Proseucha's or Oratories, which ευχήρια. were as Chappels of Ease out of their Cities they used them alone. Besides their ordinary Devotions, it is not Improbable that the most Eminent of their Doctors as they Instructed their Disciples in the Knowledge of the Law, so they prescribed or directed their Prayers, for Solus Deus docere potuit, ut se vellet orari. And therefore from whom we Receive the Revelation of the Will of God, we cannot but desire to be Taught to Pray according to it. Thus St. John the Baptist taught his Disciples and the Disciples of our Lord (some of whom had belonged to John before) desired as much of his. One of his Disciples said unto him, Lord teach us to Pray, as John also taught his Disciples, which Request as we cannot Imagine could be denied, so we cannot Conceive any more than Two ways to grant it, either by Forming a Prayer for them, or by delivering them Rules and Directions how to frame one. Now our Saviour takes the Former way, not laying down any Precepts, but delivering them a certain SetForm, a Prayer of it self, and a Pattern for others, which is the second Observable in the Text. Determinatio Orationis. He gives them not a Directory, but a Form; He tells them not how but what they are to say. And he said unto them, when ye Pray, Say, Our Father, &c. Thus the Sacerdotal Benediction and Decimal Profession were delivered in an Express Form, and the Psalms of David, (of which St. Jerome hath observed Four to be Intituled Prayers,) were a Standing Part of the Jewish Liturgy; the 70 Disciples who were sent to Preach the Gospel, Luk. 10. were all to use one Short Benediction as it were before Sermon. St. Paul concludes almost all his Epistles with one Form of Prayer, yet I hope his Spirit was of no bad invention. Justin Martyr one of the eldest Sons of the Primitive Church mentions their Kouas as, their Common-Prayers, and Tertullian hath left us the Heads of their Ordinary Prayers for the Heathen Emperors. Vitam Prolixam, imperium Securum, Domum Tutam, Exercitus Fortes, Senatum Fidelem, Populum Probum, Orbem Quietum. Thus they Prayed for the Prosecutors of the Church, more than some of us will do for the Defender of the Faith. Constantine the Great, whose Portraicture was stamped on his Coin in a Posture of Prayer, had his sitioμous Eixes composed with study and Premeditation, Εὐχὰς εὐθεσμους σὺν τοῖς τὸν Βασίλειον οἶκον πληροῦς didda (saith Euseb.) he duly said his set and appointed Prayers with his Houshold. Some have thought the Emperor our Country Man. Certainly, there cannot be a more proper Description of our present Constantine. Nay besides, he Penn'd a Form of Prayer to be said by all his Armies. And it ended thus, τὸν ἡμέτερον Βασιλέα Κωνστάντινον, παῖδας τε αὐτοῦ Θεοφιλεῖς ἐπὶ μήκιστον ἡμῖν Βιοὺ ὀπον καὶ νικητὴν Φυλάττεσθαι ποτνιώμεθα. Give me leave not only to Translate μήκιστον it into our Language, but into our Affections and Devo- QuXTTETO, tions also. We beseech thee, O Lord, to preserve our King, and his Royal Issue amongst us both safe and victorious. Thus the first Christian Monarch was Zealous of the Set Prayers |