for the upholding of the Establishment, than by ten thousand Discourses in vindication of it ; and verily, if but the smallest progress should be made in it, I should think that I had " not laboured in vain,
or run in vain."
But let us not so think of the Establishment as to forget our own souls : for, after all, the great ques- tion for the consideration of us all is, Whether we ourselves are accepted in the use of these prayers ? And here, it is not outward reverence and decorum that will suffice ; the heart must be engaged, as well as the lips. It will be to little purpose that God should say, respecting us, " They have well said all that they have spoken," unless he see his own wish also accomplished, " O that there were in them such an heart !" Indeed our prayers will be no more than a solemn mockery, if there be not a corre- spondence between the words of our lips and the feeling of our own souls : and his answer to us will be, like that to the Jews of old, " Ye hypocrites, in vain do ye worship me." Let all of us then bring our devotions to this test, and look well to it, that, with " the form, we have also the power of god- liness." We are too apt to rush into the divine presence without any consciousness of the impor- tance of the work in which we are going to be engaged, or any fear of His majesty, whom we are going to address. If we would prevent formality in the house of God, we should endeavour to carry thither a devout spirit along with us, and guard against the very first incursion of vain thoughts and foolish imaginations. Let us then labour to attain such a sense of our own necessities, and of God's unbounded goodness, as shall produce a fixedness of mind, whenever we draw nigh to God in prayer ; and for this end, let us ask of God the gift of his Holy Spirit to help our infirmities : and let us never think that we have used the Liturgy to any good purpose, unless it bring into our bosoms an inward witness of its utility, and a reasonable evidence of our acceptance with God in the use of it.