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ANSWER

To the REVEREN.D

Dr. SNAPE'S LETTER

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The Bishop of BANGOR, &c.

SIR,

Do in the first place affure You that I am fo far from being uneafy, either at your thinking in a different Way from Me; or at your giving the World an Account of your Thoughts: that I efteem it your Duty both to judge for your felf, and to publish what you judge neceffary for the Vindication of the Honour of God, and of Religion. You needed not My Example, to juftify it. The Importance of the Matter, and the Common Right of Man kind, are much better Juftifications. I only hope that my Example did not lead you into the Manner, in which you have chose to do it. What Hard and Severe Appellations your inA 2

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ward Conviction and private Belief may have fuggefted to you, I cannot tell: They can hardly, I think, be worse than the Outward Expreffion's you have been pleased to honour me with, in this Performance. As far as I am concern'd in either of them, I forgive them: And as I am ready to return you all Chriftian Good Offices, instead of such Treatment as I have met with; I will content my felf with explaining my own Meaning, where I find it mistaken; and vindicating and justifying it, where I find it needful. And this for the Sake of the World about Us: for whofe True, Legal, and Chriftian Liberty, if I have exprefs'd too much Concern; I hope, They will at least pardon me fo great an Injury.

The firft Charge is (p. 9.) that you find me triking at the very Root of All Goodness, depreciating the folemn Duty of Prayer, by feparating Devotion from it, which is the Life and Soul of it, &c. This is a very heavy Charge upon One, who knows that His Defign was to strike at the Root of fuperftitious Folly, and to establish Prayer, inftead of it. But as heavy as it is, I am content to bear it, if any Words I have made ufe of, are capable of fuch an Interpretation, by any Rules of Grammar, or Common Senfe, in the World. The Supports of the Charge are thefe; 1. I fay that Prayer is a calm, undisturbed Addrefs to God, &c. 2. That, by the Help of Men, it is come to fiify Heat and Flame, in fuch à Manner, and to fach a Degree, &c. Serm. p. 7, 8.

The Inftances, and Texts, you allege against this Account, are these.

1. The Parable about the Unjust Judge, fpoken Luke 18. 1. to this End, that Men ought al

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ways to pray, and not to faint. Always to pray, and not to faint, is, in other Words, to pray without ceafing, as the Apostle expreffes it. In your own Account, it is, to be urgent and importunate, and to follicit with Earneftnefs; i, e. to repeat our Requests to God? as Perfons who are truly in Earnest in what They ask. How this at all contradicts any thing I have faid upon this Subject, I am ftill at a Lofs to fee: or how it fixeth any fuch particular Degree of Flame, or Heat, as neceffary and effential to Prayer, which I complain to have been made fo, by the Help of Men and voluminous Rules of Art. This, and the other Pa rable you next mention, of the Man borrowing Three Loaves of His Neighbour at Midnight, Luke 11. 5. touch no Circumftance of Prayer, but the repeating it; nor is there any thing in either of Them, befides asking for the fame thing, till the Judge and the Neighbour granted it, to avoid Trouble: nor any thing fignified by them, nor by any Expreffion made ufe of in them, but that Our Prayers to God must be frequent.

2. The Representation of the Publican's fmiting upon his Breaft, as a Mark of Sorrow, (which is your Second Inftance,) was agreeable to this Cuftom of the Eaftern Countries But this is fo far from entring into the Effence of the Matter, that no Man is either more or lefs fenfible of his Sins, for ftriking, or not striking, his Breast; for fbedding, or not fbedding, Tears: or any the like Accidents, depending upon Custom, or Conftitution. If thefe, or the like, were essential to Confeffion, or Prayer, they would have been commanded; and ought indeed to be recommended by Modern Writers, in publick Worship, as well

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as private. Whereas, if I mistake not, much Greater Men than my felf, and, in common Eftimation, much greater Churchmen, have often been guilty of that Great Crime, of speaking favourably of a Calm Undisturbed Addrefs to God, in publick; and of giving exprefs Directions for it: which I'm fure can never be juftified, if the Nature and Effence of Prayer require the contrary.

3. You mention next, the Directions our Lord gives His Difciples to ask, and feek, and knock. But neither asking, nor feeking, nor knocking, (which are only other Words for praying, as you your felf interpret them,) exprefs any Circumftance of the Duty, or Temper of Him who performs it, unless a Real, and fincere Defire of Receiving, finding, or Entring.

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Your next Sentence is very furprizing. "From none of which Circumstances (here mentioned) can we be encouraged to hope that God will hear (6 our Petitions, if they are Cold, and Lifelefs. So that it feems, Cold and Lifelefs are only Other Words for Calm and Undisturbed. If you truly thought fo, yet it would have been right to have let my own Words have ftood, where you were drawing up the Strefs of your Argument against me. But if you thought them Words of a different Senfe; I know of no Juftification of them, but this one, too common amongst Writers, That every thing is lawful against the Man you diflike. If the End of the Sentence had been exprefs'd in my own Words, Calm and Undisturbed; this had not been fo fhocking. The Zeal of a Reader could not, this way, have been raised fo high against an Adverfary. Ma

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ny a Man of an Ordinary Capacity might have thought it tolerable to affirm, that God might poffibly hear a Calm and Undisturbed Addrefs to Himself. And therefore, it was expedient that Cold, and Lifelefs, fhould be the Words, put in their room. And then, the Indignation of a Reader might be raised to fome due Pitch against a Man, represented as an Advocate for Cold and Lifeless Prayers.

Sir, I have no manner of Doubt, but that you have a much greater Skill in Words, whenever you will think, than is neceffary to know the Difference between Calm, and Cold; Undisturbed, and Lifelefs. For my own part, I ever esteem my self moft alive, when I am most undisturbed; and not at all the more without Life for not being in a Paffion. Calmness I look upon to be the happiest Circumstance of a Reasonable Mind; and Freedom from inward Perturbation, the greatest Affurance, as well as Inftrument, of my understanding truly that I am in earnest in what I am about. A Man of a Calm Undisturbed Temper is, to me, a Great Character, whether He is fending up his Prayers to God ; or making His Profeffions of Friendship or Duty to Men. I always think, we may depend more upon the Sincerity of fuch an One, than upon One, whofe Noife and Outcries, whofe disturbed and paffionate Behaviour, may raife, in unexperienced Perfons, greater Expectations. And I believe, there are Multitudes of Obfervations which prove this True in Religion, as well as in common Life.

4. Prayer, (I fay it again,) is, in our Lord's own Form, a Calm, Undisturbed, Address to God. Let