For who sees not that it
is a matter of no greater difficulty to converse with, than to make a
reasonable creature? Or who would not be ashamed to deny, that he who
hath been the only author of the soul of man, and of the excellent
powers and faculties belonging to it, can more easily sustain that which
he hath made, and converse with his creature suitably to the way,
wherein he hath made it capable of his converse?"
That worship may exist without the intervention of words, on account of
this constitution of the soul, is a sentiment which has been espoused by
many pious persons who were not Quakers. Thus, the ever memorable John
Hales, in his Golden Remains, expresses himself: "Nay, one thing I know
more, that the prayer which is the most forcible, transcends, and far
exceeds, all power of words. For St. Paul, speaking unto us of the most
effectual kind of prayer, calls it sighs and groans, that cannot be
expressed. Nothing cries so loud in the ears of God, as the sighing of a
contrite and earnest heart."
"It requires not the voice, but the mind; not the stretching of the
hands, but the intention of the heart; not any outward shape or carriage
of the body, but the inward behaviour of the understanding. How then can
it slacken your worldly business and occasions, to mix them with sighs
and groans, which are the most effectual prayer?"
Dr.
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